Worthless
by GandalfTG
Summary: Xander gets kicked out of the house at 16 and finds a new toy that changes the lives of everyone on the planet. Under Revision...
1. Thursday

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, not even my car, so please don't sue me!The various series mentioned herein all belong to others far more creative than I. I'm just doing what I do, take other people's Ideas and throwing them in a blender and hitting frappe.

**Summary:** Xander gets kicked out of the house at 16 and finds a new toy.

**Pairings:** B/A, X/W, (implied possible Future W/X/D)

**Warnings:** Dawn exists, Buffy & Xander didn't make nice at the end of "When She Was Bad", and Buffy is still stressing over dying & not willing to tell Joyce & Dawn anything.

**Spoilers:** None

**Timeframe:** Beginning of Second Season, just after "When She Was Bad."

**Characters Bashed:** None, well, at least not deliberately…

**Pre-Readers:** None. Requesting Volunteers!

**MAU Notes:** After getting speaking with Elrod W. about this story and what I was planning on doing with his toys, there were certain things that he wanted to make sure that I was aware were not canon with the MAU. Magic is one of them. Normally, a MAU cannot make another MAU either, it's a form of copy protection within the device's software. Normally, it also does not work on the dead, or the Undead. Also, normally, a MAU has a 96-hour time limit. The main reason why the MAU can do magic in this story is due to the fact that in the Buffy-verse, magic is real and can co-exist rather well with technology, evidence the computerized demon summoning spell. So, regardless of the existence of magic in the 'real world', various forms of magic exist in this story, so I see no reason for the MAU to be incapable of reproducing it. For more from Elrod W. please visit his site at By Elrod W.

* * *

_1960_

First Tm'skor was having a bad day. This had started as a very routine day on another routine freight run on just one more routine Fwirthian freight ship. He was looking forward to a peaceful retirement after 84 cycles of dutiful, if boring, service on the Fwirthian merchant fleet, including the past 12 cycles as First, commander of a vessel. Of course, as a member of the merchant caste of Fwirthi, he lacked the imagination to see how dull and boring his job really was.

That was, until this morning, when his ship was suddenly surrounded by warp holes, each one spitting forth a M'Platwiri attack cruiser. Even as the bells rang the alarm of the pirate attack, bolts of energy splashed against his hull plates. The ship groaned in protest as his pitiful crew, soft and helpless, shrieked their terror, dashing about in confusion and abandoning their duty stations. Even Tm'skor was frightened and confused. Fwirthian merchant ships were not crewed by the military caste; as such, they were easy prey for the M'Platwiri pirates.

Rather, they should have been. The fates stepped in, and spared Tm'skor the fate of being captured by the pirates. As he stumbled about his bridge, confused and frightened like the other Fwirthian crewmembers, he collided with his navigator, and the pair smashed into the navigation controls. Of the buttons depressed randomly by the flailing captain, one commanded the engines to engage, and the warp generator to activate. The ship, still drawing fire, vanished into a warp hole.

Wounded, spewing freight containers from the ugly gashes in the hull, the ship popped out of its warp hole in a backwater of the galaxy, an uninteresting, backward system with one nondescript yellow star and only one reasonably habitable planet. First Tm'skor and his crew ignored the system. It wasn't on their route, and as such it held no interest to their unimaginative minds. And because their orders said nothing about recovering cargo lost from battle damage (such conditions couldn't have been imagined by the traders commissioning the cargo!), they ignored the countless canisters trailing their ship like a ribbon of confetti, each carrying nearly three thousand cubic meters of cargo. As soon as the essential systems had been repaired, they swung around the sun, set a new course, and dropped into another artificial warp hole. Behind the ship, a trail of cargo canisters, not having a warp hole as a destination, felt the tug and pull of the tiny sun and its tiny planets. Some fell almost immediately into the sun. Others were smashed against asteroids or moons or planets. For centuries to come, though, most of the cargo canisters would drift through the system, lost forever to the shipping company and its customers.

Eventually, a few of the cargo canisters, bearing the legend of the Gamalfi Company, skimmed the atmosphere of the third planet. The canisters broke up quickly, disintegrating in the awful heat, but the cargo itself was made of sterner stuff.

* * *

_June 14, 1992 – Office of Admissions, Llewellan Academy for the Gifted, California, USA_

Senior Administrator Davis is working diligently in the Office of Admissions, Llewellan Academy for the Gifted, California USA. He is addressing the annual student acceptance letters, once again following the European Wizarding Tradition even though he disagrees with it. He had always felt that children should be taught magic from the start. This would allow them to also study non-magical subjects, such as physics or chemistry, or biology, or any of the other sciences that most of the wizarding world typically ignored. Unfortunately, it wasn't his choice.

He had started just a little while ago, and came upon the name Alexander Remus Black in the Book of Magical Children West of the Mississippi River. Using the Addressing Quill that had long ago been enchanted for this task, he filled in the appropriate information, and was confused as to why the quill had written "Alexander LaVelle Harris" instead of the expected 'Remus Black.'

He was further surprised when the quill refused to address the envelope the letter was contained inside. Fortunately, there was a procedure in place for such occurrences. Policy indicated that he was to perform a series of scrying and detection spells that would at least indicate if the child were still alive, or protected by some charm, such as the Fidelius. If he was protected, they wouldn't be able to find him easily, but they could narrow the search.

Performing the required detection spells indicated that neither Alexander LaVelle Harris nor Alexander Remus Black were dead. The spell didn't say that either was alive either, so he continued with the next set of spells.

The boy was not protected by magic.

The boy was not in hiding.

He simply didn't exist as far as the spells were concerned.

Setting the letter aside for further investigation later, he continued his task until he came upon Miss Willow Rosenberg whereupon he ran into the same problems he had with young Mr. Black.

He again set the envelope aside for later investigation.

As he headed for the school Owlry, he accidentally knocked the two letters from his desk.

As Fate would have it, they did not fall to the floor, they instead fell to the trash can, that as soon as Administrator Davis was out of the room for the afternoon, one of the loyal house elves came and emptied the trash of its contents.

Neither letter would be remembered for many years to come.

* * *

_Wednesday September 1998 – Sunnydale, California, USA_

Xander is listening to his brand new Walkman, tiny little thing that it is, that he had just bought for twenty dollars at the Walgreen's down the street. It had been a while since he had a working radio, and he was enjoying himself listening to it as he went home. He wouldn't be eating a whole lot for the next few days, but the quality from the headphones was a lot better than the old radio anyway, so it was a step up in his opinion. The song playing at the moment was "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister. It did rather fit his mood of late, made him feel like he had more energy than normal, like he could almost do just about anything, including take Buffy in a straight fight.

Xander walked in the front door to his house and noticed several empty beer bottles as well as a half a bottle of tequila, something that he was fairly certain that they had been out of for quite a while. Tony only drank tequila when he was in a really bad mood. Xander instinctively ducked the first punch that came his way and rolled away to gain some room. Right about now, he was realizing that it was probably Tony Harris, his oh so loving father, and not some demon that was attacking him. This meant that the beating he was about to take wouldn't kill him, but would hurt a hell of a lot more.

Tony came at Xander again, and Xander's mood returned with a vengeance. Tony threw a wild swing, which never connected with anything besides air. Xander's shot to the solar plexus however landed rather hard, staggering his father. Xander followed up with a shot to the jaw and laid Tony out cold.

"Damn… now what? I can't just leave you there. It would be like an open invitation to the vamps to have a snack." Xander complained before grabbing Tony's feet and dragging him over to the couch. He grabbed the half empty bottle of tequila and dumped it down the drain before returning it to the living room and dropping it near his dad. He took his things and went to his room, leaving his father passes out on the floor.

* * *

_Thursday_

"You little shit! Get the hell out of my house!" Tony shouted as he threw a recently emptied beer bottle at Xander as he walked in the front door. The bottle impacted the door and shattered off to the side away from Xander. Obviously he was drunk a little early this afternoon, as Xander was only just arriving home from school.

Xander stood there gaping, trying to process just what was going on, was he really getting kicked out? For good?

"I mean it you worthless bastard! You've cost me enough for one lifetime! I never want to see you again!" This time it was a half empty beer bottle that nearly hit Xander. Well, it would have except he managed to dodge the three inches to the left to avoid the improvised weaponry.

Xander stepped back and closed the door. Well, at least he still had his schoolbooks, replacing them would have been expensive. Maybe he could sneak into his room later tonight to get the rest of his things and be gone before anyone knew he was there. He did have a stash of some money, and a few souvenirs that he would be loath to part with. A couple of RPG books that had belonged to Jesse, Willow's crayon, and a few other mementos that he had saved to remind him of the important things over the years. Maybe he could convince Buffy that they really were demons, and needed to be slayed for the good of all Humanity? Nah, letting them live would be punishment enough. There really wasn't anything that he could do to them was worse than what they were doing to themselves.

Xander started following his feet for a few minutes as he decided what to do, eventually deciding to see if Willow would allow him to crash at her place for a couple of days while he thought of something more permanent.

As Xander passes one of the town's many cemeteries, he hears a small explosion come from within. Grabbing his stake in case it's something hellmouthy, he heads in to investigate.

After looking about for a few minutes, he locates a small crater, maybe five feet across with a small metal box half buried in the bottom. Pulling it out, he notices that it's much lighter and cooler than he expected a chunk of metal that size to be. Looking it over briefly, he notices that it has no seams, and is fifteen inches wide, nine inches long, and about four inches thick, about right for one of those all metal briefcases, except he could find neither handle nor latch. In fact, the only marks he could find on the surface were some strange looking runes. No scratches from what was obviously an impact crater from only God knows how high.

Xander looked around and noticed that the sun was setting, which meant that he could mess with the little metal box later, right now he needed to get over to Willow's if he was going to have a place to crash tonight. He brushed it off a little more and then crammed it into his backpack before resuming his trip.

Walking up to Willow's front door he rings the doorbell and waits briefly for someone to open the door. In short order, Willow does so, and noticing Xander, smiles and moves out of the way, letting him in without inviting him in. "Xander, what are you doing here, not that it isn't ok for you to be here, but weren't you going home, oh my god, they didn't hurt you again, did they? I hope they didn't hurt you too badly, not that I hope they hurt you at all, I'm just saying"

"Wills, breathe," Xander requests, his trademarked lopsided grin making its appearance as well, as he interrupts the brief bout of Willow-Babble. "Dad just kicked me out, and I was wondering if I could crash here for tonight? I understand if your parents aren't cool with it, us being older than we used to be and all…"

"Of course you can stay here Xander," Willow lead him up to her room, a place he has slept on both floor and in the bed with Willow, although that was when he was much younger. "Mom and Dad are in Paris for the rest of the month for some series of conferences. Well, that's what they said anyway. At least this time they remembered to leave grocery money."

"You know Willow, I'm starting to think that they only leave grocery money when they go on one of their 'working vacations.'"

"I know, it's their way of buying me off so I don't get too upset with them for going to have fun and just leaving me behind all damsel-in-distressey, but without a whole lot of the distress, except this is Sunnydale, and there is plenty of distress to go around."

Willow offered sodas and went to get them, returning with a couple of extra pillows and the desired beverages. While she was gone, Xander had pulled out the strange metal box again and was examining it in the improved light that electricity provides after the sun begins to set. Still no scratches, no seams, no marks of any kind except for the strange runes that grace what Xander had taken to referring mentally at least to the top of the thing.

"What do you have there Xander?" Willow asks upon returning and seeing the gray metal box.

"Don't know Wills, found it in a crater in the graveyard. It's either a really fancy briefcase, an artifact of some alien race, or God's dinner plate."

Willow runs her hand over the runes gently, and the box starts to grow rapidly. Xander tosses it to the center of the room before it gets too big and decides to crush him into the bed, and it finishes growing to the size of a phone booth.

"Um, Superman's telephone booth maybe?" Willow mumbles at the box.

Xander walks over to it and looks around it. Then he turns it so that Willow could see the one side that wasn't totally smooth. There were only three things on this side of the device, a three fingered ruby hand print, an amethyst crystal to the left of the hand print, and an obsidian rectangle, flush with the side of the device, about three inches above the hand print Xander reaches out to touch the hand print

Willow grabs his arm, "Don't touch it!"

"Why Wills?"

"What if it's a booby-trap?"

"I think if it was going to kill us, it would have done so already, when you did whatever you did to change it from the brief case to the telephone booth. I think it's pretty safe, don't you?"

"All right, just be careful. I don't want to visit the hospital tonight, ok?"

"I'll be careful, and you can watch to make sure, ok Wills?" Her answer is the tentative nodding of her head, and Xander goes ahead and touches first the little purple crystal that looks kind of like amethyst, and nothing happens. Then he tries the obsidian-like rectangle, and likewise gets no response. Nervous, he takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly to help calm his nerves, and puts his hand on the ruby hand print Immediately, the obsidian rectangle begins displaying the same kind of runic script on it, obviously some kind of display, in what is presumably some language neither of them are familiar with, despite their many research parties with Giles. After a few moments, the script stopped scrolling and there are two boxes at the bottom, one of which is blinking.

Willow, looking over his shoulder, presses the blinking box, and the script disappears, and is replaced shortly by a very realistic likeness of Willow, if only six inches tall, but definitely three dimensional. Xander pulls his hand back and they exchange a brief look, after which Xander shrugs and turns back to the device. He tentatively pokes at the ruby hand print, but nothing happens. Then, he pokes at the Willow on screen, and seeing nothing happen on screen turns to check on the real Willow. Seeing that nothing had changed in her except that she was no longer quite so nervous, he poked the purple crystal. As soon as he touched the amethyst, almost half of that side of the box disappeared and became very doorway-like. Inside was another amethyst crystal in the far side of the booth, and a small ruby disk in the ceiling.

"I'm going to try it Wills, if I'm wrong, and don't come out, please don't come in after me, ok? Just get Giles and tell him everything?"

"Alright, but you be careful mister, I still want my snuggle buddy for the evening." Her tone leaving no doubt that she was giving him 'The Resolve Face.' That suited him just fine, as he had no intention of being anywhere else that evening, especially the hospital.

After nodding, he steps into the box and looks up at the ruby disk, then to the amethyst crystal, he touches the amethyst crystal and the door disappears and a bright yellow light is cast down upon him from the ruby disk above him. Xander closes his eyes, and the light goes out. He realizes that his balance is a bit off, but figures that it is caused by the light-blindness that is slowly wearing off, and he stumbles out of the box through the door that has reappeared. Feeling a jiggle on his chest, he looks down and notices two breasts on his chest now that his eyes are working slightly better. He also notices that he's wearing the same dress that Willow is. His only comment is the ever-intelligent "Wha?" as he also notices that it has exited his mouth sounding a lot like Willow. Xander turns to look into the mirror over Willow's vanity, and sees Willow looking back at him.

"Xa-Xander?" Willow offers tentatively.

"Um, I think so, although I seem to be more of a Willow-Shaped-Friend at the moment." He says as he touches his face to see if it's real. Not believing it, he tries the breasts, and gets a strange sensation as he does so. "Ok, so this is real. Um, I don't think I am you, I just look like you, I'm still rather upset with Buffy for that dance thing, and watching the girl in the mirror feel herself up was more than entertaining, so I'm still myself." Then he gets this strange look on his face as he simultaneously looks down and grabs his crotch to check on little Xander. "Ohhh kaaayyy. A very complete Willow-Shaped-Friend, and a Xander that's missing something very near and dear to Xander."

Willow's eyes go wide with realization and disbelief as she reaches over and feels her chest on not-her-body. With Willow standing behind Xander-in-Willow's-Body, "Yeah, they're mine," she whispers quietly. Willow also repeats Xander's previous short arm inspection, only to find the short arm missing, and finding a nice smooth mound in its place.

Staring into the mirror, both of them watching Willow feel up Willow, Xander lets out a brief moan. "Willow, if you don't stop whatever it is you're doing, I'm not going to let you stop for quite a while."

Willow turns bright red and jerks her hands behind her as she says "Eeep!"

"Well now, let's see if I can change back," Xander says as he tries to get his breathing back under control. Xander walks back to the device and puts his hand back on the ruby hand print

Seeing his own body appear on the screen, he touches the amethyst crystal, steps back into the machine and activates it. Remembering not to look at the ruby disk, and thus, not getting blinded this time, steps out looking significantly more like himself.

"Xander! You're taller, well, not much, but, well, taller," Willow exclaims as Xander rechecks his face, then chest, then making sure that he was still a "Him."

"What do you mean Wills?" Xander says as he checks himself in her vanity. "Haven't I always been this tall?"

"Almost, I'd say you're about an inch and a half taller than you were then when you got up this morning."

"How is that possible? I mean, I was just trying to get the machine to turn me back to normal, not improve me."

Xander sat down at her vanity as Willow sat on the edge of her bed. "Well, it was probably reading your mind. It made you look like what you think you look like, your own self image. The other time it changed you, you were thinking about me, and you know what I look like, so it turned you into my twin."

"So, it reads your mind. That makes sense. It was kind of cool being you for a few minutes, it felt as natural as my own body does, and I finally understand what they mean by the center of gravity being different for girls, it's a lot lower. I wonder what else it can do?"

Willow put her hand on the control plate and brought up her own image and let her mind drift a bit. The clothing changed, the hair became longer and brown, then blond, and finally back to red. Then she tried blue, green, and a few other colors before returning to red again. "Well, at the very least, you could probably make yourself look just about any way you want. It doesn't seem to be limited to natural occurrences, well, at least with the hair. Probably eyes too." She made her boobs grow on screen until the thought of how big they really would be was painful, and then made them totally disappear. She changed her height down to three feet and up to seven feet tall. Then she started getting creative. She imagined herself as Hawkgirl, a Twi'lekian Dancing Girl, a Vulcan, and a few others. Then she stopped at an image, and not letting Xander see what it was, "Promise you won't peek until after I come out? I want to try something."

"Ok, Wills, so long as you promise me that it isn't dangerous, I won't peek."

When Willow comes out, she is dressed as a 3WA Agent. Willow floats up off the ground a few inches and tells Xander that he can look.

Xander turns around and notices the costume and the grin on her face, and the strange sheen to her eyes. "Um, Wills, did you know that you're really flying there? Well, more like floating, but still."

"Yep, and all of Yuri's other toys too Xander," as she holds up Yuri's "Gash Master" and standard issue WWWA pulse pistol.

"Well, you've kind of proven that that thing can make us superheroes and that we can make any kind of physical changes that we want and that it can make equipment, let's see what else it can do." Xander walked over to the handprint and thought of himself with the abilities and knowledge of Goku, added in telekinetic ability, and wolverine's Adamantium claws and regeneration then steps into the machine.

Stepping out of the machine, with an odd blue sheen in his brown eyes that quickly disappears, "So Wills, care to have some fun at the expense of the Sunnydale Vampire Club?"

"I'm good, but what about you? What did you do, you just look like you?"

Xander pulled one of the unsharpened stakes from across the room with telekinesis and extended a claw and proceeded to sharpen the piece of wood into a stake. "Oh, I've got a few ideas that I'm working on, but I want some payback from these vamps for tonight. Why don't you go put on some regular clothes over those, and we'll go play with some Vamps?"

Willow got a long black broomstick skirt and a white blouse and put them on over her Battle Bikini.

As they were walking out the front door, Xander commented off handedly "The Battle Bikini looks good on you Wills." At which Willow turned as red as her hair and almost went back in to hide, except that Xander now had his arm around her and was preventing her from running away. Ok, so he managed to get her back for groping him, or was it herself, earlier, quite easily at that, but was he really flirting with her, or was it just the same old Xander-jokes? Willow couldn't tell, but she hoped to figure it out shortly.

Xander and Willow walked around down town for a while, very close together, and very comfortable with the closeness, neither really realizing that they had been that way for about 20 minutes, ever since leaving Willow's house actually, and neither willing to change the situation. After a while, Willow had put her arm around Xander as well, having done this a couple of times during the summer break from school, it was starting to become very comfortable.

Deciding to take a 'shortcut' through several of the cemeteries, but avoiding the two that they had seen Buffy go into, they finally found a group of five vampires just hanging out chatting. The two just walked past them until the vampires noticed the two of them and decided to have a midnight snack.

"Well, well, look at what we have here boys, who ordered delivery? The Redhead certainly looks tasty, if a little bland, might need a little A1," one of them said.

"I don't know Wills, I never thought you would be bland, always thought you were more peaches and cream, and A1 just doesn't go well with peaches and cream. Don't think it would go too well with Willow either. Come to think of it, Ice Cream was good, so chocolate sauce would probably be pretty good to." Xander looked from Willow to the group of vampires just in time to miss seeing Willow look up at him with confusion again written on her face.

About then, the guy who was obviously a fledgling spoke up. "Um, isn't this supposed to be the point where they get scared of us?"

"Yeah, just goes to show how stupid they are, don't even realize how much danger they are in," a third vampire answered. Willow got over her confusion over Xander and returned her attention to the vampires where it was needed.

"Aw, the stupid never taste good," was the comment from yet another, not noticing Xander's eyes were shifting towards blue.

Still with his arm around Willow's shoulder, Xander tapped her shoulder once with each finger, and then tapped his ring finger several times. Willow confused about this looked to Xander. Noticing her confusion, he nodded towards the vampires, and she realized what he was saying. She gave him a little squeeze to let him know that she understood and was waiting for whatever he had planned.

The vampires had gotten a little annoyed that their snacks were pretty much ignoring them and looked like they were about to attack, so Xander squeezed Willow and they both let loose with their own weapons, Willow shooting her target with the pulse pistol and hitting in the chest, right at the heart blowing a rather large hole in his chest, and Xander lets loose with a Dodon Pa right between the eyes of the one who had spoken first. Both vampires dusting after a second.

The other three vampires stood and watched in horror what had just occurred. For them, it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. They wanted to turn and run, but their own fear now held them paralyzed.

Willow and Xander exchanged a glance, to which Xander shrugged and proceeded to burn a second Vampire, this time aiming for the heart, Willow shooting the fourth vampire a moment later. Finally reacting, the fifth vampire turns and runs, only to be shot in the back by Willow's pulse pistol.

"Huh, that was too easy. I'm almost disappointed."

"We could try to find a bigger group Xander."

"Nah, you know Sunnyhell, they only get together in big groups when they are trying to start some real trouble, and I haven't heard about anything major on the horizon. The town is pretty much not doing anything tonight, and I just don't feel up to anything more tonight."

"Well, we could hit the bronze for a little while, it is still pretty early."

"Couple drinks, little dancing with my favorite girl friend, sounds like a plan."

Xander and Willow had been in The Bronze for all of five minutes before Xander got bored looking for women to pick up. "Hey Wills, Dance with me" Xander half asked and half stated as he grabbed her hand and dragged her, unresisting, to the dance floor.

This too, they had done several times over the long, uneventful summer. One thing that they hadn't done was slow dance. They would always take a break for a few minutes and catch their breath or get a drink. Sometimes it was Willow who wanted to take a break. Sometimes it was Xander instead. This time, neither could come up with an excuse not to keep dancing as the first song ended and a slow song started.

Willow moved in closer to Xander as they moved slowly with the music. To a degree, Willow was glad that they were dancing so close, as it meant that Xander couldn't see the bright red glow that she knew that her face must be giving off. For the first time in a couple years, she got to hold Xander, 'wow, what a chest, and those arms! Didja get a load of those shoulders? And don't forget that chest!' her mind kept shouting at her, going round and round in circles, completely lost as song after song played.

Xander mean while was trying very hard to think about anything but how good Willow felt in his arms in a supreme effort to avoid a potentially embarrassing shift in his blood pressure. He didn't last past the two-minute mark before he gave in. Well, by the time he gave in, it was already too late, but Willow never noticed, she was busy thinking about other parts of his body.

Another song was just ending when they both realized that the band up on stage was no longer playing slow songs. They quickly separated and headed back to their table. Xander orders a few drinks for them, and they wait for them to arrive. They both sat in awkward silence wondering what to say next that wouldn't sound either lame or like they were trying to encourage the other to take a step into the more-than-friends territory.

They nursed their drinks as the band came back from a short recess. Willow had tried several times to start a conversation, but every time she stopped herself before she stated.

"So Wills, another dance, then head back to your house?"

"Sure, I'd like that, and it is getting a little later."

Two songs later and the band again switched to slow music, not that either of them noticed, or complained this time. Xander and Willow simply moved in and embraced the other, Willow looking at Xander this time, not putting her head on his shoulder again.

Shortly after this began, they couldn't even be called dancing any more when Willow reached up and kissed Xander lightly on the lips.

Such a move rather took Xander by surprise, but after Willow broke the kiss, he did reach down of his own accord and kiss her again.

Willow then broke the kiss a second time and realized what she had just done, going quite red and quite shy very quickly. She turned and ran out of the bronze, heading for home before she embarrassed herself further.

Xander of course stopped only to grab their things and leave a goodly sized tip for their waitress before following Willow.

Xander knocks on the door to Willow's house. After not getting a response, he flies up to her window, which she has left open for the comfortable night air that is common to southern California.

Xander spots Willow sitting up against her bedroom door as he floats in and alights gently upon her bedroom floor not far from her. Willow looks up at him with tears in her eyes.

"Sorry Wills, but you can't run from me this time. You want to tell me what's wrong, or are you going to make me guess?" Xander states as he sits down next to her and tries to hug her, but she pulls away slightly before giving in to him and his always wanting to comfort those around him.

After a few moments Willow finally speaks, but rather quietly. "I'm so sorry Xander. I don't know what made me kiss you like that."

"Why? I didn't kiss that badly, did I? I mean I know I don't have a whole lot of experience kissing or anything, but I wasn't that bad, was I?"

Willow looked rather horrified at the thought that Xander now thought that he was a terrible kisser, which wasn't why she had folded so badly and ran away. "No Xan, you were wonderful! It was just what every girl dreams of for her first kiss. I'm just afraid that I've ruined our friendship and you won't want to be around me any more because I'm so shy and I really don't deserve…"

Willow was cut off at that point due to the fact that she suddenly found her lips occupied by a slightly more important task than speaking; mainly that of being kissed for the second time that night by Xander.

After a minute of kissing, Xander finally pulled back. "If you don't deserve someone who loves you and will stick by you no matter what, then I don't know who does Willow." Xander pulled her chin up gently with his fingers. "You have been and always shall be my best friend, and now that I know that you can see me as something more than just a friend, I won't just let you shy away until we decided that there is nothing besides friendship between us, or that we decided that there is something more, something better than just being friends." He sat back then and took her hands and pulled her up off the floor.

"But what if it was a mistake?"

"Willow, I have loved you since kindergarten, what ever I have done to make you think that kissing me could have been a mistake, I'm sorry. I would never think it could ever be anything other than wonderful, which incidentally, I thought it was pretty damned wonderful to kiss you."

"But."

"Hey, no more buts. I'm yours for as long as you'll have me, now I could really use your help getting the rest of my stuff from my parents place." Xander sat Willow on the bed and looked at the machine that took up a good deal of floor space in her bedroom. He looked it over once again, even trying his x-ray vision on it, but he only noticed a bunch of circuitry inside the machine, not totally unexpected. He floated up and noticed the runes from earlier, and remembering that all Willow had done was run her hand over them, did likewise and the telephone booth shrunk back down to the size of a briefcase. "Well, that's one mystery solved. Now we can at least hide it somewhere…"

"Xander, why don't we just go over to your parents place and get your stuff. It's not like they could hurt either of us considering the changes we've made…"

Xander set the briefcase in an open spot a bit more out of the way and re-activated the machine. "Yeah, but I'm thinking I don't want him to see me there, so I want to be a little bit more invisible if I need to be."

Xander walks over to the handprint and brings up his current state and then thinks himself into a suit of Yautja Power Armor and isn't really surprised when the image on the screen looks like Xander in a suit of armor with the helmet being held under one arm, just as he'd imagined it, plasma cannon on one shoulder, collapsing staff behind his waist, the disk at his right thigh, net caster strapped to his back so it could be drawn with his right hand over his shoulder. "I think that should cover it," Xander says as he presses the purple button to let him into the machine.

Willow looks at the screen and nods, "Yeah, that should just about handle anything short of a nuclear bomb."

Xander comes out of the machine and puts the helmet on and attaches all the connections. As the displays come up and start giving him a read out on the suits status, he realizes that he can't read it as it's still in Yautja. He thinks for a moment, wondering if there is a way to change it from Yautja to English, and the displays change over for him. "Convenient little computer," he muses and makes way for Willow to make any changes she wants.

"No, I'm fine. Maybe after we get back."

Xander and Willow fly over to Xander's house and let themselves in through the front door after scanning the house with Xander's armor. They quietly made their way up to Xander's room and began collecting the more irreplaceable items, keepsakes, and mementos. Among the items collected was Xander's comic book collection, which Willow very rapidly flew over to her house, and a couple boxes of Role Playing books that they had used when playing with Jessie, a stack of character sheets, and a bag of dice. While Willow was doing one of her trips, Xander took a small box that contained his "Willow Stuff" that included a small broken yellow crayon amongst other things, and stuck it in with some other things that he picked up as his last load of things that he needed. With that taken care of, Xander and Willow flew back to Willow's house.

Xander realized that he would need some new clothes, used the machine to create a duffel bag full of the kinds of clothes that he had been wearing for the past few years, only to realize that he didn't have to dress that way any more, he didn't have to afford better clothing, he could just get the box to make whatever he wanted.

Xander proceeded to change the clothing in the duffel bag from the "K-Mart Clearance Sale Specials" that he had started with, into tailored shirts, slacks, suits, shoes, and other assorted "Nice Clothing" that he had never had the chance to wear before.

Then Xander made another duffel bag full of things he could take to the local Pawn Shops, stuff that they could buy from him easily such as jewelry, portable electronics, and similar things. If he went to the pawn shop that was run by one of the local demons, he could get more money by selling them weapons so he included a matched pair of Pearl Grip Colt 1911 in .45ACP, a Colt AR-15A3 Carbine, and a Mossberg 590DA 12 gauge shotgun.

Xander removes the Yautja armor and piles it in a corner before getting into the machine. Xander steps out of the machine and puts the bag with his clothing in it by the door and hides the other in the hall closet before going to find out what Willow is up to.

Xander finds Willow watching a movie on TV, and it is only moments before he realizes that it's "The Princess Bride" that Willow loves so much. He himself had tried to watch it several times, and had always liked what he had seen, it's just that he had always been exhausted and fallen asleep before it was over. Unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be this time either as they both fall asleep three quarters through the movie.


	2. Friday

_Friday_

Willow wakes up rather confused as to why her back is sore and her pillow is lumpier than usual. Willow rubs the sleep from her eyes and pulls her head from Xander's lap. A few moments later she remembers that they were watching movies on TV and had fallen asleep on the couch, which rather explained the stiff and soreness, as comfortable as Xander was, not even he could fix that couch.

Willow looks up at Xander's position on the couch, and thinks that he can't be comfortable with his head hanging down like that. It'll probably be worse than my back. She nudges his shoulder to wake him, "Xander, wake up. We are going to be late for school."

"School, humph, burn it to roast yummy marshmallows," Xander mumbled. Willow gets up and grabs one of the throw pillows from the couch, and uses it in the time-honored method of Xander-waking, smacking him with a pillow. "Huh? Wha? I'm up…"

"You are now. Really Xander, burn the school down just to roast marshmallows?"

"Sure, can you think of a better reason to burn down a school?"

"Um, not really, but then that's not to say that it's a good reasons to burn down a school. But anyway, we are going to be late for school. How is the neck by the way?" Willow asks while walking to her bedroom

Xander rolls his neck and it cracks a few times, "Little stiff, but not bad." He thinks for a minute, "You want to see if we could use the box to skip the shower thing or do you want to do breakfast first?"

"Why don't you make some eggs while I go get ready, then you can play some more with the machine & we can fly to school," Willow says as she heads for the bathroom.

"Right, everything where it usually is then?"

"Never moves Xan, unless of course you or I are using them."

Xander quickly has a good sized breakfast of eggs, toast, juice, and bacon waiting for Willow as she gets back from her shower, and goes to take one himself as she eats. Before long, they head to school without further use of the device.

Xander is standing at Willow's locker as she finished putting her books away and grabbing their lunch. "So where do we have lunch today Wills?"

"We could grab a few extra things and go have lunch with Giles in the library, not much chance of having to deal with creeps there, I've been having reflex problems, my wet ware keeps misinterpreting the normal desires to hurt Cordelia, as the command to retrieve the Pulse Pistol. I wound up having to disable both weapons so I wouldn't accidentally summon them in class."

From behind, they hear "Harris, you looser, still hanging out with the wall flower, eh? Pathetic really, when are you ever going to learn?"

"Willow, do you hear something? Kind of high pitched, rather whiny?"

"Yeah, I think it's Larry, behind you," She giggled.

"Oh? I guess I better find out what he wants then." Xander turns around and looks Larry right in the eye with his usual grin. "Hi Larry, what can I do for you?"

"You could die, but seeing as you're too much of a coward, why don't you just leave the area?"

"Wow Larry, your vocabulary is really growing, that was a three syllable word there."

"Don't piss me off Harris, I'm in a bad enough mood as it is, just get out of my face and I won't have to hurt you."

"Nope. Don't think so. Not today. In fact, I'll even give you a free shot. If I even feel it, just a little, I'll transfer to another school, ok? However, if I don't feel it, you leave me and my friends alone, got it?" Xander sticks his chin out a little, "Come on, right here. Don't worry, I'm not trying to trap you into anything, and you've got plenty of witnesses that heard me make the offer, so now's your chance to hit me."

At this point, Larry was obviously thinking it was a really good deal so he steps up, gets ready to hit him, and swings as hard as he can, connecting with Xander's jaw, and feels his hand shatter like he just punched a tank.

It takes a second for the pain to register in Larry's brain, but when it does, comprehension registers in his eyes that, yes, that's pain I'm feeling, a whole lot of pain, and it really, really hurts. Larry of course starts screaming and clutching his broken hand.

Xander looks at him kind of confused for a second before gathering his wits, "Well Larry, I would have thought you knew how to hit someone better than that, I guess you'll be leaving me and my friends alone now," Xander grabs his shirt and lifts Larry to eye level so that Larry is looking into Xander's eyes as they momentarily flash blue and go pupil-less, "Won't you?" he says menacingly.

Larry nods, and tries to run away as quickly as possible, which Xander allows him to do. "Oh, and Larry? I'd suggest Ice for that hand before too long!"

"Done playing with the bullies Xander? Can we go have lunch with Giles now?"

"Sure Wills, I'm kind of hungry myself." He smiles at her and puts his arm around her as they walk off to the library and Giles.

Willow and Xander walk into the library to see Giles busy looking through a stack of books, as though researching something rather intently.

"Yo, G-man! What's up with the Research Party?"

"Xander, please don't call me that." The older man replied with a note of exacerbation. "There was a previously unscheduled meteor shower that began last night and has occurred over most of the globe by now. I am currently doing what I can to ensure that there have been no references to it in any prophesy that I have on record."

"Well, we came in to have lunch with you, and to let you know that my Dad kicked me out of the house last night, so I at the least won't be stopping by this afternoon as planed. Need to find a job and everything. I'm staying at Willows for the next two weeks while her parents are out of town on a working vacation, but I'll need to find a place to live as well."

"I say, Xander, that's quite unexpected. Are you certain that he meant to evict you permanently?"

"Even if he didn't G-Man, I'm going to make the most of this opportunity, and get out from under his thumb. I don't need to take their abuse any more, so I'm going to choose not to."

Giles rolled his eyes at being called 'G-Man' again, "Xander, how many times must I ask you not to call me by that infernal nickname?"

"You don't like it G-Man? Huh, well, I would guess then, at least once more, as I've just used it again and appear to have not stopped yet."

"Then allow me to provide that 'Once More' and ask you again to desist with that nickname."

"Well, I did say 'At Least' so it will probably take more than that, but you never know."

"Xander, we had better get to class or we'll be late." Willow reminded him as she snuggled up to him.

"Yes ma'am. See you later Giles, and good luck with the research."

Giles noticed that the two had finally overcome their mutual barriers and became a couple, smiling to himself and returning to his research, he hadn't even noticed that Xander had finally called him by his proper name, not that he would have believed that it would last long had he noticed.

Xander walked out of Marty's Pawn Shop, it was owned by a local demon, with nearly a thousand dollars in his pocket. He headed back to Willow's quickly as it neared on sunset, and he didn't feel like getting caught out alone. He didn't think that any group of vampires would be able to take him at the moment, but he also didn't feel the necessity to push his luck at the moment. Marty had given him what the guns were actually worth as he had not included serial numbers on the guns. He hadn't known about the serial numbers. He also hadn't known how guns were traced, so the seven that he had sold would undoubtedly be very difficult to trace or pattern match.

When Xander finally reached Willow's, he let himself in with the key she gave him this morning and called out, "Willow, I'm back from Marty's."

With no answer from Willow, he checked the kitchen and living room before finding her in her bedroom with her nose buried in a book, the Rifts main book to be precise. Xander remembered that when they had played over a year ago, Willow had always been "Magic Girl" often alternating between a Ley Line Walker and a Techno-Wizard. Xander preferred Psionics, and Jesse had preferred bionics. Amy, who had only played with them a few times, had played mecha pilots.

"Hey Wills, research?"

Slightly startled, "Hm? Oh, Xander, your back, did it go ok? Yeah, I'm thinking about trying the box again."

"Went fine Wills. He said that the guns I sold him lacked something called a serial number, so they were worth more than normal, so I got nearly a thousand dollars from him. I told him I had some jewelry as well, but he told me that he couldn't really move much of that, this being Sunnyhell and all. Guns and other weapons however were always prime commodities, so I worked out a deal with him. If someone came in looking for something specific, he would call me and see if I had one, and I'd hop in the box and bring it over to him. He'd give me two thirds of what ever he made on the sale, and he gets a reputation of being able to get his hands on almost anything, which in turn means more business."

"So you're in gun running now, Xander?"

"Sort of, I mean, I realized that I can't get a normal job, I'm just too young. Labor laws, you know?"

"Well, I'm not happy about the guns, but I'll get over it."

"Good, so what were you thinking about doing with the box?"

"I was thinking a 15th level Ley Line Walker/ 15th level Techno-Wizard might come in handy around the hellmouth. Lord knows we never played any characters up that high, but if I just add those capabilities to myself, well, it should work, and I can always revert back to this if it doesn't work."

Xander picked up his copy of Psyscape and replied, "Cool, if it works out alright, I'll add in the Mind Melter stuff."

Willow walked over to the machine and expanded it back to full size, placed her hand on the palm print and started adding in the abilities from the book, and the machine added in all the little details, as she pictured herself as the most powerful magic user that would never walk the land of Rifts Earth. Only certain races like dragons and Splugorth would have more magical knowledge than she did in a few moments.

Willow stepped out of the box with a brand new backpack over her shoulder, her favorite rifle, the NG-P7, along with various other bits of equipment that a character of that level might need.

They realized at this point that the box really was full service, and that they were really lucky to get it. Now they were worried.

Xander took his turn at the control panel and entered in his desired additions, including the psi-sword and psi-shield, and all the telemechanical powers. After listing all the powers that a 15th level Mind Melter received, he decided to scrap that entire idea as he remembered something out of another book, sort of a super-mind melter. They were called Neo Humans. Xander quickly grabbed the book that they were in and reread their entry. Adding it to himself he walked out of the box, and had to suppress a chuckle at what he had learned.

Xander explained to Willow, "Well, the box, it's called a Morphic Adaptation Unit, or MAU for short. It was invented by the Fwirthian race. This unit is a Mark five, and was developed by their business people to include a demonstration period, which we are currently in. Of course, they didn't think to include a translation program so that people would know that the box only works for 4 days. The machine requires people to pay 52,495 Fwirthi Rakburs to continue to operate past the 4-day limit. I also did an object read that told me that it wound up on earth due to a fire fight between the freighter that was hauling them from the factory to the distribution center, and a very large cruiser. That the devices managed to be here at all is a series of comical errors that could only be coincidence and blind luck. The Fwirthi are terribly unimaginative, and how they came up with this device I really have no idea."

"So, what can't the box do Xan?"

"It's coded so that it won't deliberately cause harm. It won't lower a person's intelligence, and won't alter the body to a less fit state, unless that is the way that person started. It basically takes what an individual operator believes would be harmful and uses that as it's guidelines. I can re-program that out, but I'll leave it in for now, but I already removed the time limit."

"Xander, can it turn Angel back into a human?"

"No, it can't create life, and Angel is already dead. We could probably change him into some other kind of dead thing, but we can't create life. It would be nice if we could simply turn all the vampires back into the humans they were before they were turned, but I guess that would be too easy. I don't know what it would do about the possession bit either, but I suppose we could experiment."

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, I think it's time that we let other know what's going on. We know what we have here, and I for one intend to use it for the greatest good. I think we should also use it to protect the people we care about who would be able to handle the existence of the supernatural." Xander paused for a few moments and they both thought things through, "I think we should go over to Buffy's tomorrow morning and talk with Mrs. Summers and Dawn, let them in on the secrets around here, and let them use the MAU. I can imagine what Dawn will try, but I've got no clue about Mrs. Summers."

Willow thought for a few moments before agreeing with him. After a brief dinner and doing their homework, they snuggled up on the couch and watched a movie before heading to bed. Willow enjoyed being held in Xander's arms as they fell asleep.


	3. Saturday

_Unproofed - I need a volunteer to do so for these chapters and future ones._

_Saturday_

Willow and Xander walked up to the Summers home. As neither believed that it would be a good idea to have Buffy interrupt their discussion with Mrs. Summers, Willow had agreed to cast a sleep spell on Buffy and silence spells around her bedroom, which she did as she arrived.

Joyce answered the door and invited the young couple into the living room.

Xander started the difficult conversation to come, "Thanks for seeing us Mrs. Summers. There's a few things that we wanted to talk with you about, most of them Buffy doesn't want you to know, but we felt that you need to know."

Joyce responded, "I know she's hiding things from me, and she goes out after she thinks everyone is a sleep. This has to do with that?"

Xander nodded and continued, "Well, it's a little difficult to prove in the light of day, but I assure you that everything we talk about is the truth. There are no drugs or alcohol involved, so that at least should set some of your worries to rest. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and in this case, scarier as well.

"To tell it the way it was explained to me, after I had already seen the proof, the world is older than any of us really knows, and it started not in paradise as is commonly believed but in nightmares of brutality, pain and suffering. The Earth was over run with creatures that we today call demons. Demons are creatures that revel in debauchery and the debasement of life. They are things that were not gifted from the creator with a soul. They ruled the earth for untold eons until mankind rose up and drove them out. They did not leave all together unfortunately, and as the last True Demon left, it mixed its blood with a mortal human's and created the first vampire. It was to fight these creatures that the First Slayer was called and empowered with strength and speed beyond that which normal humans possess. These gifts allowed the Slayer the edge she needs to kill vampires and other lesser demons that still inhabit our planet to this day. There is only ever one Slayer, and it is always a teenaged girl, usually called sometime between 14 and 16 years of age. When one Slayer is killed, the next is called. We don't know why a girl so young is called, nor do we know who does the choosing, but we do know that they aren't mortal humans."

Joyce interrupted Xander at this point, "The current Slayer I take it is supposedly Buffy? That would be the only reason you'd be telling me this all now."

Willow entered the conversation at this point, "Yes ma'am. The problem is that the Slayer is guided by a group of people called, uncreatively, The Watchers. They are, as a group, stuffy shirted Brits who insist that the slayer fights alone, and maintain the secrecy that they have kept for untold years. Giles though is a real decent sort, he's her watcher, and doesn't force Buffy to fight alone, but he does try to encourage the whole secrecy thing. We were forced by circumstances to get involved, but when given the opportunity to get out, found that we couldn't. We couldn't just walk away and leave Buffy to fight by herself. So now, Buffy, Xander, and I each dedicate out talents and abilities to keeping the Vampire population in check."

Joyce weighed back in now, "You don't expect me to just take your word for this do you?"

"Well, it would be nice, but no. While we can't really prove the existence of Vampires in the daytime, as they do have decent survival instincts. We can prove that the supernatural does exist. Willow is a very powerful Mage who could shoot the hairs off a gnat's ass at a thousand yards, and I'm a Psionicist and a fair to decent fighter," Xander answered.

Willow interrupted, "Xander I doubt that there is anyone in the multi-verse more skilled and has more sheer power than you do. I'd put even money between you and Superman."

Joyce looked a bit nervous at this, and Xander decided to skip the argument with Willow over his self-depreciation. "Mrs. Summers, I don't think I'm quite as powerful as Willow thinks, but I am quite powerful, and multi-talented." He floated some drinks in from the kitchen for them all, turned the radio on and changed the stations a few times before turning it off. "What we haven't told you yet is that we weren't born this way, we have altered ourselves using a bit of technology that I discovered a couple of days ago. We like you, and your daughters, and want to see you around for a great many years to come. This is why we are here this morning we want to protect you. I feel that we, each of us individually, are our own best, last line of defense. We want to offer you and Dawn the chance to use the device we found to protect yourselves, your family, and when the need comes, to protect others if you so choose. You don't have to get involved with the fight against the darkness, but we would welcome the assistance."

Joyce sat there for a few minutes thinking. They could be pulling an elaborate prank, but she didn't think so, everything seemed to fit together, and the kids did seem to be telling her the truth, even what she didn't want to believe. After all, who wants to believe that the boogieman is real, and while he may not be in your closet tonight, he might just move in tomorrow night. Xander proved that at least some part of what he said was true with his telekinesis demonstration, but that didn't necessarily prove anything else, just that he had some special ability. "You do realize that I'm going to want proof, right?" She finally asked.

Xander answered with his normal smirk, "I would have been disappointed otherwise, Mrs. Summers."

"Ok, for now, I'll accept what you've been telling me, although that may be due to shock. Tell me about this device you found. What all can it do, what are its limitations?" Joyce asked.

"Well, as far as Xander has been able to reprogram the MAU, that's what it's called, it really doesn't have any limitations other than the user's imagination. Whatever you can think of, you can become. I first started off becoming a comic book character called Yuri. I still have all her implants, including the computers and the battle drugs. I also have her Pulse Pistol which has proven quite effective against Vampires. Of course, bladed weapons are good against vampires as well. Last night I added in two different, but related, schools of magic, or rather two different ways of approaching the same kind of magic. I know Xander became a Neo Human, and he's got Wolverine's claws and regeneration, and he told me that he added in Son Goku's fighting skills." Noticing Joyce's blank look, she clarified, "A Neo Human is a genetically modified race of super-humans created by C.J. Carella for the Rifts RPG. Son Goku is the hero of the Dragon Ball cartoon, he was a martial artist that was taught an extremely potent form of martial arts."

"So, if I wanted a Green Lantern Corps. Power Ring?" Joyce asked unsteadily.

"I'd be welcoming you to the Corps! Of course, I might suggest adding something a bit more directly damaging against vampires, like pyrokinesis," Xander answered.

Willow added, "You may want to increase your natural healing as well."

"Ok then, how do we do this?" Joyce asked after making up her mind to get involved, not just in her eldest daughter's life, but the fight itself.

Xander opened his backpack and pulled out the MAU in its storage form and moved some furniture out of the way telekinetically. As he expanded it to full size, he explained further, "The MAU, or Morphic Adaptation Unit, has a few safeguards and limitations. First, it cannot create life. Second, it will not alter a body into a less fit state. Third, you've got to be able to get it either into or out of the MAU for it to do something." After thinking for a few moments he continued, "To operate the MAU, you normally place your hand on the red palm print, and think of what you want to become. So to start, let's think of the standard Green Lantern Uniform."

What appeared on screen was Joyce, similar to how she currently looked, except a fair few years younger, well into her twenties as Xander was the one operating the MAU. She had also lost a bit of weight and picked up a toned appearance in the Green Lantern Bodysuit. The uniform itself was black overall as is tradition, with green gauntlets, a green mask that covered her eyes and nose, green boots with a 3" heel. The chest bore the Green Lantern symbol in a black sphere, which was in turn resting on a green mantle that covered the shoulders. She looked good, but without revealing more than necessary. Willow noticed that Xander had again, unintentionally used his mental image of the woman, rather than what she really looked like. Well, at least she thought it was unintentional anyway, Xander had never shown any real interest in Joyce in spite of all his flirting. Willow got up quietly and went to go get Dawn for the next stage in their plans.

"Next we add in the regeneration and resistance to disease and illness, and remove the need to recharge the ring or repeat the Oath every 24 hours, as they really can be a liability. If you wish for other things, we can add them now, or you can add them in later, Lady's choice?"

Joyce decided to go for everything now, just to see if it really could do all she wanted. "Go ahead and add in the pyrokinesis and heightened reflexes."

Xander made the modifications he was bade, then added in a waist belt with the Green Lantern logo and attached a pair of low-slung holsters. The right holster contained a modified DL-44, similar to what Han Solo carried. The left holster contained a lightsaber with a blade the same color green as her costume. Before finalizing the changes, he also added into the left gauntlet the function of a Starfleet Tricorder, a subspace communicator into the right gauntlet, and the skills to use each of the devices as well as the Green Lantern powers.

Joyce exited the MAU in the Green Lantern Uniform and gave Xander a Hug and whispered quietly, "Thanks."

Xander replied in kind, "Always happy to help the women in my life to live out their dreams."

Willow re-entered the living room with Dawn who froze seeing the Female Green Lantern standing there hugging her Xander. It was just a bit unreal.

Joyce, noticing her youngest daughter frozen on the stairs, "Dawn?"

Things started processing for her again as she recognized the voice, "Mom?"

Joyce moved over to where Dawn stood on the stairs, "You ok honey?"

Dawn nodded, still just slightly out of it, "Mom? You're a Green Lantern?"

Xander chuckled, "She is now Morning Light."

Dawn turned to him, "What do you mean Xander?"

"I mean that she wasn't a Green Lantern before I arranged for the creation of her Power Ring. Of course, we added a few things that most Green Lanterns don't get."

"How? Why?" Dawn asked.

"Because Sunnydale is dangerous for those who don't know what's going on."

"Oh, you mean like Vampires and Demons."

Joyce looked sharply at her daughter and asked, "How do you know about that stuff?"

"Please mother, it's rather obvious around Sunnydale, although most people ignore the bad stuff they don't want to see. Besides, Buffy's the Slayer that dates a Vampire, Xander and Willow have been in love since forever, and my mother's the new Green Lantern. Being the 'Nosy Little Sister' has its advantages. Perfectly reasonable." Dawn smirked, "Besides, I got my brains from somewhere, it certainly wasn't from Dad, it's just too bad Buffy is more like Dad than you."

Now Joyce was worried, but chose to overlook the sibling insults, "What's this about Buffy dating a Vampire? I thought she was seeing that college boy, Angel?"

Xander explained, "Angel is a vampire ma'am, and he's about 300 years old, if I remember right. The difference between Angel and the average Vampire is that the demon Angelus was cursed about 200 years ago. That curse gave the original soul back control of the body. Personally, I think he's a broody, cowardly, bastard, but that's just me apparently." Xander said morosely, "The girls all think he's this dreamy romantic pretty boy."

"Yes, well, if I have anything to say about it, she won't be dating the Undead any more, regardless of how dreamy and romantic she thinks he is." Joyce said.

Xander spoke to Willow, "Will, could you and Mrs. Summers make a lunch run for the five of us, while I explain a few of the most recent changes to Dawn?"

They both agreed and departed while Xander and Dawn sat down. Xander explained about the things that had happened during the week, ending up with helping her mother become the first real Green Lantern. As they had been friends for what seemed longer than the time they had actually known each other, the explanation went quickly.

Dawn took a moment to assimilate everything, but responded, "And you're going to let me use the MAU as well, right?"

"Yes, so long as I have your word that you won't try anything that might get me in trouble with your mom."

"I promise that you won't get in trouble for anything I do Xander. You only ever get in trouble for the things that you've done."

"Yeah, but it usually involved you this past summer."

"Not my fault mom needed a sense of humor transplant, but she seems better now that Buffy's home and school started again." Dawn looked at the MAU. "I just put my hand on the print and think what I want?"

"Yep, simple as that. I don't need to, but that's just because I gave myself that ability."

"Cool." Dawn put her hand on the palm print and thought of herself, and she appeared on the display. Dawn added in all the standard Jedi abilities, all the special Jedi Talents that she could remember from the comics and novels she had read since getting to know Xander, and she figured most importantly, she added in all the training that the Old Jedi Order provided. This included all the various lightsaber forms. It also included the teachings on the Jedi Code, but ignored the nonsense about suppressing one's emotions as though feeling them would invariably lead one down the path of the dark side. Humans were inherently emotional creatures, and need to learn to not necessarily act on their emotions, but to recognize the emotions and understand them, and in so doing, analyze why they feel the way they do and what appropriate actions might be based upon those emotions, if there are any.

She thought of what else she might like, and the image on screen aged several years to about 17. Thinking that, yes, she might like to be a little older, she kept the change. She added in the abilities of the Washu character from Tenchi Muyo. She also added in everything that Gina Diggers and Bulma Briefs knew. On her utility belt she created a Sorosuub S5 Security Blaster and a lightsaber that would have a Cyan blade edge, but an emerald green core. She attached a complete Starfleet medical kit as a backpack and put an advanced Tricorder on her belt as well.

Before she finished Dawn decided to get some really big things from the MAU, more as a test to see if it would actually work than a true desire for them, so she added a series of Capsule Corp Capsules. Inside the first capsule she placed a custom built Imperial II Star Destroyer with a manufacturing plant in its holds. This Star Destroyer was capable of building anything, including other starships so long as it had access to the raw materials it would need. It was also carried all the most advanced Star Trek technologies, all powered by two miniature stars. Instead of Turbo Laser Batteries, it carried the same Type 12 phaser banks that the latest Enterprise did. It had Quantum Torpedoes instead of proton torpedoes. It had Federation Shields, transporters, replicators, sick bays, science labs, and sensors.

The second capsule held a customized TIE-Defender with the Federation Phased Cloaking device and a small living area behind the cockpit that wasn't much more than a bathroom, a bed, and a few cupboards. It wound up making the Defender about 20 larger, but with the pylons moving the maneuvering thrusters further from the central core, it wound up increased its maneuverability substantially. Using a Federation impulse reactor also provided more power for shields, weapons, the cloaking device, and greater sub-light speed and the oversized impulse driver coils should allow it to hit 85 PSL as well as being able to enter hyperspace on its own.

The third capsule contained several droids. She had an R6 series astromech droid, which was similar to the R2 that most people would be familiar with but was significantly more advanced. This particular R6 droid was modified with a powerful shield generator, a DL-44 blaster pistol, a short-range remote processor, a vocabulator, it's own built in Starfleet communicator, and a built in tricorder. She thought it was too bad that nobody had ever thought to create a man portable Starfleet shield generator. Dawn then realized that it didn't matter and replace the regular Star Wars droid shield with a Federation shield generator. Dawn added a pair of Droidekas that would be slaved to the R6 along with 6 pit droids and 4 LE series repair droids, all of which had remote receivers installed so that they too would be slaved to the R6.

The fourth capsule contained a handheld computer that had all the data on all the Sci-fi technologies that she knew of. Included were the sciences and knowledge from Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Transformers, Macross, Macross II, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Genesis Chamber Mospeda, Sol Bianca, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, Megazone 21, Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis, and Patlabor. Dawn also included the specifications on the MAU. Ok, she had to admit it to herself. She was an anime addict, but that was Xander's fault and she was fine with that. Then again, if you want really advanced technology, as a sci-fi junkie, that was the place to find it. The fifth capsule held a collection of speeders and swoops, again, some of which were modified from their basic configuration.

Finally satisfied that she had added in everything that she wanted right now, she pressed the little red button and hopped in.

Coming out of the MAU, she realized that she didn't just get an older body, but her poorly thought instructions to the MAU early on had given her the realization that she wasn't just Dawn Summers, but that she was also The Key of Dagon, a mystical artifact that could create passageways between dimensions. The Gina Diggers in her now thought it was hardly a surprise that they had barely survived not just the Hell Goddess herself, but the casting of the spell that protected the Key of Dagon as well. Not to mention the fact that they Created Life in giving her a body.

"Very cool Xander." She said grinning a mile wide.

Xander noticed the body that Dawn had exited the MAU in, thinking she was hotter than Buffy, which was saying something in his mind. He realized the thought was going to get him into trouble if anyone else heard it and dragged it kicking and screaming back into his subconscious. "Um, Dawn, I think this qualifies as something that your mom is going to try to skin me over. You're supposed to be 12."

"Actually, I haven't been created yet. You can blame some Monks in Outer Mongolia or something for that. The MAU just made it so that I knew myself, and even that was a bit of an accident."

"Huh?" was his ever intelligent reply.

"Ok, Let me start with when I was telling the MAU what I wanted. I was actually wondering what I wanted, and the MAU showed me in this body. I thought it was kind of cool so I kept it, not knowing what else went on between the ears. When I got out, I discovered that one of the basic wants and desires of all humans is to know ourselves. In order to fulfill that desire, I had to know that I'm the Key of Dagon, given human form and sent here to Sunnydale in order to protect it from a Hell Goddess who will come looking for it in several years. She will try to use the Key to get home, and in so doing, destroy our planet. Dawn Summers is a temporal artifact of a spell not yet cast. Of course, before they cast the spell that gave me human form, they couldn't get my input on the subject. As such, I think I should be able to choose to have an older body if I want one. From one perspective, I'm as old as existence itself. From another perspective, I am a 12 years old girl. From a third perspective, I don't yet exist. From a fourth perspective, I am as old as I choose to be. Which one is more correct when all four are Truth?"

"You know, I used to love watching all those time travel shows on Star Trek, but you're giving me a headache. Is this going to cause a paradox?"

"Nope. Already done. Can't be done again. Can't be Undone. Ergo, no paradox."

"Big word there, what all did you do?"

"Well, I always loved Star Wars, and lately you've gotten me hooked on anime and manga, so I added in Washu, Gold Digger, and Bulma. I also added a few other bits from Dragonball Z, like the capsules."

"I'll let you off that hook for now, but you explain it to your mother," who took that as her cue to walk back into the house with their lunches courtesy of Subway.

"Explain what to her mother?" Joyce asked.

"Food first mom, I'm starving!"

"Dawn! What did you do to yourself young lady?" Joyce exclaimed once she noticed the slightly different Dawn standing in the living room. Willow was gaping at the girl as well, and she was busy having an argument with herself about how Dawn was supposed to be 12, and Good Willows do not have dirty thoughts about other girls. Besides, I have Xander now. I don't need a hottie girlfriend… Stop that! That's Dawn you're drooling over! She kept telling herself this. Just as she had every other time she had those thoughts about other girls.

"Turns out I'm older than we thought. I would prefer to explain further after food. Growing girl here!"

"I can see the growing part, what I want to know is why."

"Short answer is that I goofed with the MAU and was thinking about what I really wanted, and it showed me myself at 17. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to keep it. Long answer after food!"

"You sure?" Joyce thought to herself well, we can let her play teenager for now, and we can always turn her back later.

"Yes. Sandwich?"

Joyce caved in and she and Willow began unpacking everyone's favorites from the bag.

After lunch, Dawn suggested that they get Buffy up so she only had to explain it once more, and Buffy was likely to be more problematic than her mother.

Willow canceled the sleep and silence spells and woke Buffy. Once Buffy was awake, the story was explained to Buffy, including the fact that her two best friends had gone behind the backs of both the Slayer and the Watcher, and told the Mother about the Night Job. Proceeding on to the discovery of the MAU and what the four of them had done with it. Dawn also explained the unintended consequences that the MAU had on her.

Dawn had noticed the extra attention Xander was receiving as both Willow and Xander kept sneaking peaks at her. It took her a little while to figure it out, but once she did, she grinned to herself and began slipping coy little smiles at both Willow and Xander.

* * *

Once back in the living room, Xander made an offer to Buffy. "Buffy, you've complained several times about having been called as a Slayer. I think that you are correct that it should have been a choice, so now I'm going to give you the opportunity that you've been complaining about. I'm going to let you retire from being the slayer."

Buffy, shocked at the possibility, asked, "You can do that?"

"Well, I can't, but the MAU can. You may be the Slayer right now, but that only makes you the weakest person currently in this house. Yes, I can use the MAU to make you more powerful as well, but what happens the next time you make a mistake? What happens the next time you decide that your way is the only way, and everyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong? You were called for a purpose, to kill vampires and demons. This purpose doesn't make you better than everyone else, only your own actions speak to that. My question for you, Buffy, is do you want to stay being the Slayer, or do you want to get out of the fight against the darkness?"

"I, I don't know. If I stay a slayer, what do you intend to do?"

"Well, first, we decide as a group who the new leader is going to be. I won't follow someone who won't listen to everyone's opinions as though they don't matter just because they think that might makes right. Since there isn't an apocalypse due for quite a while, I think we can put off making that decision a few days. Second, if you can manage to get your ego in check, I'll help you decide what other boosts you might find useful to the slayer package. Third, I'd like to see what else is out there, is it just this one tiny planet full of life, or are there others in the galaxy? I know what Dawn's capsules contain, and I would like to see if they work, and what can be done with them," Xander told the group. "Of course, if you choose not to stay a slayer, most of that remains the same, just whether or not you are included in the big stuff or if you choose to live a normal life, provided that you can do so in Sunnydale."

"Will you give me some time to think about it Xan?"

"Sure Buff, let me know when you've figured yourself out, k?"

Buffy nodded and walked out the back door to go think for a while, deciding on what she wanted, now that she had a choice.

The rest of the group stuck around the living room discussing options, what all they could do with the MAU and the things that they got from it. Xander confessed to setting up the deal with Marty, and thought that he should continue it, so long as Marty also helps give him information as to who's doing what in Sunnydale. Assuming that the capsule idea works, and they can get very big objects from them, they should maybe see about getting some more property and setting up some legitimate businesses that will allow these technologies to get out to the market, thereby making them all filthy rich. Xander figured that they could go to Vegas and win a few Slot Machine Jackpots on Sunday. That alone should earn them enough money to do as they please for a while, and as long as they waste some of it at the casino, they should be permitted to do it again in the future, should they need to.

With that as the next course of business, Xander hopped into the MAU and got a package of his own Capsule Corp Capsules, including his own lightsaber with a dark green blade, a tiny Type I phaser, and a Tricorder of his own. The capsules contained Utopia Planetia shipyards, the Enterprise-E from the most recent Trek movie, The Defiant, a brand new 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 500, and the corporate headquarters for Capsule Corp. In the sixth capsule, he stored the SDF-2 Megaroad. The Megaroad was about 33 larger than the SDF-1 Macross, and supported a much larger weapons array as well as a much larger complement of starfighters and a higher colonist capacity. While she was only 1/3 larger, she had double the combat capability. Xander didn't know if the systems would be compatible with Federation Phaser strips, but he hoped so. He hoped that most of the systems would be compatible. Xander stopped and stared off into space for a moment. He was being stupid. He didn't have to leave it to chance, he could simply MAKE the Megaroad and related Macross systems compatible with Federation systems. Hell, he didn't even have to refit the Megaroad after producing it, he could refit it himself now. So, he did. Instead of rows upon rows of laser turrets, he replaced them with Class XII Phaser Strips. Instead of the Pinpoint Barrier System, he added metaphasic shields. He added vastly more effective inertial dampeners. And instead of the huge number of missile launchers, he replaced them with Quantum Torpedo Launchers. Then he swapped out the reactor that would no longer provide sufficient power with a pair of Warp Cores and a large number of Fusion reactors for back up power.

Upon Xander's exiting the MAU, everyone went out to the back yard to see if the capsules worked, and if there was a size limitation.

Xander tossed his first capsule, the Shelby Mustang into the driveway, and out popped the hot rod in an explosion of smoke. Satisfied, he invited Dawn to go next, and she tossed out the capsule containing the speeders and swoops. What popped out was exactly what she had programmed, several racing swoops, several combat speeders, and even one speeder truck outfitted as an APC.

Sufficiently impressed, Xander and Dawn talked briefly about the other capsules and how best to deploy them as they were quickly running out of room. Xander had the Defiant that certain fit their needs, but was larger than the amount of space they currently had available. Dawn had her Tie Defender, but it lacked transporters necessary to deploy anything larger. It was the major hole in her otherwise solid plan.

While Xander and Dawn were discussing the merits and flaws of various methods of getting into space, Willow went back inside to use the MAU again, having had the idea to add D&D Wizard magic to her repertoire. She included a rather large set of spell ingredients and a complete set of spell books, including several empty books. And just for the fun of it, and because she didn't want to be left out, she included a Jedi package as well, getting a lightsaber with a purple blade, a tricorder, and a BlasTech DT-12 all on a utility belt. As capsules, Willow added a Merr-Sonn Underslung Rotary Blaster Carbine, a Tenlos Disrupter Rifle, a SoroSuub Firelance blaster rifle, a case of power packs, and a Type 3c Phaser rifle.

The four decided to take a drive out to the desert in Xander's brand new Mustang and deploy the Defiant. He would enter through the use of one of Dawn's speeders and take command of the vessel then bring everyone else up so that they could collectively deploy the rest of their assets, assuming of course that they worked. Dawn stored the speeders, and they all took off for the desert.

* * *

Xander stepped off the speeder and onto the deck of the Defiant Class Warship. Knowing everything he did about the operations of starships as imparted to him by the MAU, he spoke with authority. "Computer, Identify Harris, Alexander LaVelle, Fleet Admiral. As of now, I am assuming command of this vessel."

The computer responded in the predicted voice of the dead writer's wife, "Identity Acknowledged. Fleet Admiral Harris has command."

Xander walked to the transporter room, and operated the console to transport the three women onto the ship.

Dawn, very excited by the experience, "That was so cool, Xan!"

Willow was looking a little green from being cut off momentarily from everything and then reconnecting to it. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Joyce was impressed, but not as over awed as Dawn was. She realized that the technology to make transporters work was very advanced, but didn't care as much as her youngest did, that and she was concerned about Willow's reaction. Joyce conjured a green bucket for Willow and handed it to her, "Here sweetie, are you going to be ok?"

Willow nodded, "So long as I don't have to do that again. Next time, I think I'll do it the magical way."

Once Willow was feeling better, Xander led them all to the bridge, and said to his friends, "Ok, everyone Identify yourselves to the computer. Just say 'Computer, identify' followed by your name."

Joyce started, "Computer, identify Summers, Joyce."

"Identity Acknowledged."

Willow was next, "Computer, identify Rosenberg, Willow."

"Identity Acknowledged."

Finally Dawn said, "Computer, identify Summers, Dawn."

"Identity Acknowledged."

Xander spoke to the computer again, "Computer, Register Dawn Summers as the Chief Science Officer Rank: Lieutenant Commander. Register Willow Rosenberg as Chief Magical Officer with the same rank. Register Joyce Summers as Ship's Councilor Rank: Commander."

"Acknowledged, Ranks and positions registered," the computer responded.

"Dawn, would you care to take the helm?" Xander asked as he sat in the Captain's Chair.

Dawn offered him a sloppy salute and a big smile saying, "Yes Sir!" and hurried to the position directly in front of the captain.

"Willow, if you would care to, the normal science station is here, with everything you know about computers, I'm sure you'll pick up the LCARS system quickly." He gestured to the station directly to his left and continued, "Mrs. Summers, feel free to sit where ever you'd like, The Defiant was built as a warship, unlike most other Federation designs. If you sit with Willow though, I'm sure that she can help you get used to the computer system, if you need it."

"Thank you, Xander," she offered him a small but warm smile.

Xander turned back to Dawn again, who had just finished re-configuring her station to include most of the critical functions, including tactical, navigations, and operations.

Dawn beat him to the punch however, and reported, "All systems operational, and in stand by mode. Shields, Phasers, Quantum Torpedoes, Romulan Cloaking Device, Thrusters, Impulse Drive, Warp Drive, Standing by on your orders."

"Thanks Dawn, in that case, I think I'll make history by saying, Engage Cloak and take us up. Oh, and before I forget completely, transport my car to cargo bay one please?"

"Transport Complete. Cloaking Device activating. Engaging course for high orbit, Thrusters at full." Dawn looked over at Xander, "You do realize, that even remaining on thrusters, we have just broken every human speed record in existence?"

"Yeah, not bad for an afternoon's work." Xander quipped back at her.

"The question is what do we play with next, and what do we do with it all?"

"How about your Star Destroyer?"

"Sure, if we deploy it inside the main asteroid belt, then it should have sufficient resources to build whatever we want it to. The only real question will be staffing concerns. The Defiant didn't have an Industrial Replicator on board, so we can't just replicate some droids. Wish I had thought about that."

"Don't worry about it Dawn, I can deploy the Sovereign class Enterprise, and we can use the industrial replicators aboard her to make as many droids as we need. And don't forget we still have the MAU to get any other models of droids we need in the short term."

Joyce looked to Xander, "How intelligent are these droids Xander?"

"Well, almost all of them have human level intelligence. Of course, that in its self is a significant range of intelligence. They are all capable of following at least simple commands based on what they were designed to do. Most can communicate in binary, though some models speak English, they all understand it."

"Aren't we risking creating a slave race?"

"I don't think so. Very few droids ever develop sentience. It is possible for the higher order droids, like protocol droids and some astromech droids like R2D2. All of their reactions and responses are, for the most part, programmed. I suppose it would be better to say that they simulate intelligence. For the most part, for a droid to develop sentience would require certain flexibility in their programming and a capacity to learn. It also requires that they be treated like people, so that they internalize that anthropomorphism. At least, that's the theory."

"What other options do we have right now?" Willow asked.

"A few, but I don't think any of them are any good." Joyce replied. "We could hire people, but that would require larger amounts of money than we have right now, and I don't know that I would really trust most people not to abuse the level of technology that we have available, not counting the MAU. We could also turn most of this over to the government and let them worry about it, though they haven't proven themselves worthy of this kind of technology either. Of course, we can also create the droids you were talking about. That gets awfully close to slavery in my book."

Xander thought for a moment or two before responding. "I think that the only option we have right now is the Droid option. If sentience becomes an issue, we simply offer any droid who wants it its freedom, after a term of service."

"Sounds reasonable for now Xander." Joyce said with Willow and Dawns agreement.

"Good, Dawn, take us to the asteroid belt, but take it slow, I want to check out the rest of the ship."

"Sure Xan, half hour enough?"

"Should be. I'm just going to go claim the Captain's Stateroom, and check the armory. See how complete a job the MAU did. Dawn, you have the bridge."

As Xander left the bridge, he began communicating with the main computer, memorizing the layout of the ship, and setting a few features, such as making sure that the ship's clock was set to the twentieth century, not the twenty-fourth. Xander quickly claimed the Captain's stateroom, and ordered the computer to seal it if he wasn't inside. He expanded the MAU and had it make him another capsule with Commander Data inside it. From the replicators, he took a Fleet Admiral's uniform, circa 2375, with 5 silver pips that he immediately donned, keeping his weapons belt. Data might question the rank and uniform due to his apparent age, or the lack of it, but would likely accept the rank for the time being. Hopefully it would give him enough time to just get Data going along, and once he had achieved that, momentum would carry them through.

Xander took Data's capsule down to the armory and picked up a case of communicators, a case of the small type I phasers, and an additional Tricorder for Willow, not having noticed what all was on her utility belt. Proceeding from there to main engineering where he planned on using the capsule.

"Computer, I want you to recognize this object. It is called a Capsule Corp Capsule, or simply just a Capsule. For now, we will identify this as a Type I capsule, meaning that it has no upper limit on storage capacity. I am going to activate it shortly. Associated with its activation sensors will detect a subspace event. This is the normal function of this device, and no alerts are required, other than to the bridge duty officer and the standard entry into the ships log."

"Standing by," the computer responded dutifully.

"Activating Capsule," Xander informed the computer as he pressed the plunger on the cylinder and placed it on the worktable. Five seconds, and one cloud of smoke later, Commander Data laid on the table.

"Capsule activation Sequence identified."

"Good. Computer, should you ever detect the activation of a Type I capsule again, you are to immediately transport it to one hundred thousand kilometers directly to port. This is a general order to be spread throughout the fleet. A command officer or department head can over ride this order."

"General Order Acknowledged and will be transmitted to any Starbases and Starships that come within range."

"Thank you. Now to wake sleeping beauty." Xander sat Data up on the table and hit the activation switch in his lower back.

As Data powered up and began to move on his own, Xander release him.

"Excuse me sir, but where am I?" Data asked.

"Name, Rank, Status."

The android responded immediately, "Data, Commander, Second Officer of the USS Enterprise. I appear to be fully functional."

"Good. My name is Fleet Admiral Xander Harris. You are currently in Main Engineering of the USS Defiant, my Flagship, on route from Earth to its main asteroid belt. This ship's current mission is to deploy two strategic assets and secure their operation before returning to Earth under stealth. The current year is 1998, and we have not traveled back in time. The Defiant is currently the most powerful, and only, starship in known space. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes Sir. How is it that a human who has yet to reach his majority has earned the rank of Fleet Admiral?"

"Good question. What do you know of ancient Earth history, specifically how human culture came to be?"

"I am familiar with the historical accounts as well as several of the mythological accountings."

"Most of which state that humans began in a paradise?"

"Correct, there are several, such as the Babylonian accounting which suggest otherwise, but there are very few corroborating elements from other regional accountings."

"Do any of them also include the driving off of demons and the creation of vampires?"

"No Sir. May I ask why you are asking this line of question?"

"Because Commander Data, that is how humanity began, as slaves and cattle to creatures that we currently call demons." Xander continued to tell Data about the history of the world as told by the Watchers council. He continued on to tell the story about how he came to involve himself in the fight against the darkness, and how he had stumbled upon the MAU on Thursday night. He told the Commander what he and his friends had done with it, and what they had planned on doing with it. In the end, Data agreed to honor the ranks and roles that the young man had assigned, and to assist in the rebuilding of the Earth defensive network. Further projects would be determined at a later date, however, Data wanted to be in on any exploring that got done, as it was his primary motivation for joining Starfleet. While he had not been as fascinated as his previous captain had been at the early exploration of the Federation, it would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Dawn's voice came over the intercom, "Xander, you want to join us? We've reached the asteroid belt."

"Be right there Dawn. Xander out." Xander turned to Data, "With me Mr. Data."

"Aye Sir."

Xander and Data went back to the bridge. The women were surprised to see two people walk onto the bridge, when one had left.

Mrs. Summers looked at Xander and the new person, "Xander, I thought the MAU couldn't create life?"

"It can't. Mr. Data is not alive, but he is sentient. I have asked for his help, and he has granted it. He has agreed to follow my orders, and honor your ranks as well. I think I'm going to promote him to captain of the Enterprise and we should give him command of the Shipyard Star Destroyer, under the general mission of establishing the primary defensive line around earth."

Once the Star Destroyer and the Enterprise had been deployed, Xander and Data transported over to the Enterprise where Xander assumed command, promoted Commander Data to Captain, and then transferred command of the Enterprise to Data. Xander spent some time entering a few droid designs into the industrial replicators and left Data to secure the area, then to establish the Mars Line.

The Mars Line was supposed to be a series of satellites that orbited Sol at various angles, but all at about the same distance as Mars itself. The first generation of satellites was only designed to last for a year, but would carry Class VIII phasers, 25 photon torpedoes in an auto-launcher that could fire 5 torpedoes at a time, standard shields, and a respectable sensor grid. They would be relatively easy to build and would provide a minimum amount of protection rapidly. Not only that, but when sensor data was collated with satellites from all 3600 satellites, the resolution would be rather impressive, even by Star Trek standards.

The second generation of these satellites would include metaphasic shielding, type XII phasers, and 50 quantum torpedoes. Once that was completed, a second line of satellites would be built at the edge of the Oort Cloud. Then, Data had orders to build a small fleet of 10 Defiant class vessels that carried Federation phased cloaking devices.

Data had objected to the use of the technology, as the Treaty of Algernon banned it in 2311. Xander replied with "Why should we be subjected to a ban that hasn't come into effect yet? Especially when that ban should never have been signed in the first place. I could understand a hundred year moratorium on cloaking technology, but a permanent ban? No Way. Besides, there is no evidence to suggest that Romulans exist in this universe. Romulus, Vulcan, Qo'noS, Andoira, Cardassia, Ferrenginar, none of them exist here."

Once Data was settled in with a few droid assistants, Xander and the others returned to earth.

Before splitting up for the night, Xander suggested that they go to Vegas in the morning and have some fun and make a little money. Joyce objected at first on ethical grounds, but Xander convinced her that they didn't need a lot of money, just enough to get started, just enough to buy a few pieces of property for their Earth based business fronts.

_

* * *

Cheyenne Mountain_

A Major walked up to a desk, came to attention and waited to be acknowledged.

The man behind the desk signed the form he was reading and noticed the Major, "Yes Major?"

"General, Tracking reports a hypersonic signature outbound from the Southwest united states. We had nothing on radar, nor on infrared. We lost the object completely once it left the atmosphere."

"I see. Was it one of the Starfall objects?"

"No sir. The object that left the atmosphere was much larger. According to the computer's estimates, the object that produced that shockwave had to be quite large, in the same range as an Arleigh Burke destroyer."

"You checked the computer for errors?"

"Yes sir. Self-Test showed clean. I've got a few of the physics guys from downstairs confirming the numbers."

"Alright, be ready for it to come back, and make sure that my briefing package for the president includes this new contact. It may not have been a Starfall object, but it is possibly related."

"Yes Sir."

"Dismissed."


	4. Sunday

_Sunday_

As Xander, Dawn, Buffy, and Joyce transported back into the Summer's home, Willow Teleported in after them laughing. "Oh Xander! Did you see the look on that guy's face when you lightsabered his desk?"

"Yeah, well he shouldn't have tried to pull that mafia crap on us. I mean, those guys have this reputation for being able to read people really well, but I guess when it comes down to a 125 million dollar jackpot, all their so called good sense goes right out the window. And Buffy, did you really need to break that guy's jaw?"

"Xander, he had his hand up my skirt. Yes, he needed to have his jaw broken, and he's very lucky to have gotten only that."

When Xander heard that, he became visibly angry, "I didn't know about the hand Buffy. You are correct, breaking his jaw was very restrained of you."

Dawn summoned drinks for everyone from the kitchen and asked, "So what was our final take from those crooked creeps anyway?"

Joyce answered, "Well, after the blatant demonstration of various powers and abilities of everyone in the room at that point, they did offer to pay our taxes for us, so we kept the entire amount. So if we each get an equal share, then it's 25 million each. Of course, we may need to see a lawyer to see about getting the shares divided without having to pay more taxes on the money, doubtless there will be some sort of legal fiction involved, possibly some sort of trust."

"How about this in the mean time, I want to pick out a property to set up our land based facilities, so if you buy them, then sell them to me for significantly below value, say oh I don't know, a buck? Then just subtract what you paid for the property from my share," Xander stated.

"I don't have a problem with that Xander, and I doubt you need to maintain a regular income since you replicate just about anything you may need, and what you can't replicate, you can get from the MAU. We should see about getting a look at those properties this afternoon if you're really in that much of a hurry, and buy one on Monday."

"Thanks Mrs. Summers, I appreciate it. While Willow would let me stay with her at her parents house for as long as I like, I doubt her parents would be very happy having their daughter's boyfriend staying there any longer than necessary."

The five of them continued to talk about what they could do with the money. Dawn let Xander borrow her holographic computer, and he checked the local internet listings for available real estate that might suit their needs. He preferred something a bit more isolated so that they could simply deploy the capsule home and Capsule Corp. buildings, and he also wanted something that had no pre-existing structures.

Isolated he found. Undeveloped, he did not.

"Hey, I think I've found the best I'm going to find. The Estate is 3.5 million, but there's plenty of room for Capsule Corp. and it's overlooking an ocean front cliff. This says that there is easy access to it's own private beach, and according to the Map of the Sunnydale Cave system, there is a series of large caves beneath the mansion, some of which are under water."

"Where'd you get the map Xander? I hadn't gotten around to making a detailed scan of the area yet."

"I linked to the Defiant and had the ship's sensors scan the area Dawn. Took all of 10 seconds."

Xander then put up a hologram of the mansion for the others to see. The 'small' mansion had about 20 rooms, including a library, dining hall, ballroom, two studies, a nursery, and a greenhouse, in addition to the more family oriented dining room. Each of the thirteen bedrooms had an attached bathroom and a walk-in closet and plenty of space for vanities, desks, dressers, and large beds. While the mansion itself was stripped of it's furniture, it would make a very nice basis on which to decorate, and Joyce said so.

While Joyce, Buffy, and Willow were discussing decoration options, Xander and Dawn discussed technical issues.

"With the cave system as a security concern, we could set up shield emitters at these four points," as she pointed them out, "and we would secure a large portion of the surrounding cave system for our own use. If we install a fusion reactor here, that will provide more than enough power for the house, the shields, sensors, and a defensive grid. I have enough power for my Lab, but I can't power all that without additional reactors."

"That's fine, I'd rather you keep your Lab's reactors for your own usage, especially if you're going to start running experiments like the Digger's sisters and Washu preferred. Besides, it'll give me enough power to install an armory here, and I can use this area as a holodeck."

"Would you think it's a good idea to keep a Delta Flyer here as an emergency vehicle? It's small enough to fit through this tunnel, and we could use the submerged passageway here to avoid announcing to the world that we've got space capable vehicles. Just fly her a few miles off shore before surfacing and heading for orbit."

"Probably a good idea, but I think we should enlarge the underwater section of the passageway, it gets a little tight through here."

Xander may not have noticed, but Dawn certainly took note that Xander put his arm around her shoulder as they stood back and examined the hologram that integrated the changes that everyone wanted. Willow came up to his other side and put her arm around his waist, and his absentmindedly went for hers as well. When all three of them were snuggled together happily studying the hologram, Joyce snapped a picture.

This, of course, startled the three teens out of their mutual embrace, and Xander nervously extricated himself from Dawn, not wanting to upset his girlfriend Willow.

Each of the five people were silently considering the implications of that picture. Some thoughts were on blackmail material, but most of the thoughts were along the lines of 'do/does I/she really like me/Xander that way?' and 'is/am she/I trying to steal him/Xander from her/Willow, or is there something more?' In fact, the only one who wasn't thinking 'is a threesome really that far out of the question considering the three of them?' was Xander to whom the thought never occurred. To him, it was a choice of one or the other as a properly respectable relationship was only two people.

After much pondering not just of the picture itself, but the reactions of the three teens in question, Joyce announced dinner.

Dinner was a much quieter affair than normal for the Summer's house. Willow and Xander still found it hard to keep their eyes off each other, but now they also included Dawn in their actions. Dawn was still amused by the actions of Xander and Willow, as it was obvious to her that they were both attracted to her, and the only thing stopping them from doing anything appeared to be Xander.

Well, she could certainly talk with Willow later and get things moving again, one way or another, but the tensions couldn't go on like this forever, especially now that they were considering purchasing a mansion together.

* * *

It was a few hours later when Buffy approached Xander who was sitting in the back yard staring up at the stars.

"Hey Buffy. What's up?"

"Hey Xander," she said as she sat down next to him and watched the stars with him. "Did you mean what you said, you'd let me retire from the Slayer gig?"

"Yeah Buff. This fight, it's a choice for everyone but the slayers. I don't know who makes the decision as to who becomes a Slayer and who doesn't, but to take that choice away from someone is wrong. It's a violation of Free Will."

"That's what I thought too, but I never had the opportunity to put it to words." Buffy paused for a few minutes, thinking while she observed the stars. All of that stuff out there, just waiting to be discovered, and this is my moment of decision. This is the point where I decide what I'm going to do with my life. Some times the price for not doing a thing is a lot higher than sticking with it.

"I'm going to stay the Slayer, Xander."

"You sure Buffy?"

"Yeah. I don't think I could really live with myself if I didn't help when I could. Besides, with all the cool stuff you've got, I'm sure that we can make very short work of the vampires when ever the rear their ugly little heads, so I might have a chance at a social life anyway."

"Alright. Have you decided who you're going to vote for our little party leader?"

"Yep. And I'll tell you tomorrow afternoon. Mom is even going to join us at school after she gets the property purchased."

"Cool. Mrs. S, The G-Man, Mrs. C, and the rest of us. Big meeting, I better bring one of the portable replicators for snacks and such."

"There's a portable version?"

"Yeah. They are usually stored in shuttles and runabouts for extended field use."

"Oh. Can we install regular versions in the Mansion?"

"Don't see why not. I'm also going to have a bunch of droids running around the place, both as servants for us as well as security for the place. I think we should arrange for the droids to meet Dead Boy. See if they can determine if he's a vamp on sight. If so, we can possibly have some battle droids fitted for normal patrols and information gathering purposes."

"Cool. So, what's the big plan for the starships?"

"Well, I'm thinking that we can set up a colony on Mars. Once we get the basic system defenses up, which should take Data less than 6 months, I think I'll set him to constructing the Mars Colony. Once that's done, I think I'll turn him loose on a survey mission. Find the nearest dozen worlds that can support humans, find out what other resources are near those planets. Once we've got the Mars Colony, we start getting people off Earth. What happened to the Dinosaurs will not happen to Humanity."

"That's a pretty big plan."

"Yeah, but we've got the technology to do it, so why not do it?"

"Good point. What about people? How are you going to choose who to offer to take off planet?"

"Well, I want younger people, people who can still learn and who aren't still set in their ways. People open to new ideas and new possibilities. That and if they are willing to sign the colonization papers, I won't have a problem with it, I don't think."

"Going to be a new US of A or you going to try something else?"

"I think I'll try something new. I want it to be democratic without the roadblocks our government has. I figure something like an elected Grey Council from Babylon 5 would probably work all right. I think, if we have two Houses, like in the US, then the lower house, which is all elected, can handle the running of the government. The upper house, or our Grey Council, I think should be lifetime appointments by The One, confirmed by the lower house. I think that The One should be Hereditary. The current One chooses which of their kids becomes the next One. Again, either the lower house or the Grey Council can confirm the appointment."

"Sounds pretty fair. The people still get most of the say, but someone in charge can still tell them that the are being childish, and no, they can't have a cookie, it'll ruin their dinner."

"That's pretty much my thought. We could probably use the Upper house as a supreme court to make sure that things stay within the rules."

"Could be more stable than our government, but also introduces far more ability for who ever is The One to abuse their power."

"Nah, see that's why the Grey Council idea works. You aren't that big a fan of the show, so you don't know all the ins and outs of how it works, but while The One can over ride the Grey Council, they can also tell him to go stuff it if he gets too far out there. The One can't start any Laws, but he can make requests to the lower house. Obviously if they don't think it's a good idea, they won't pass it. Nor would the upper house approve it. And when Dukat was The One, he didn't use his override unless the council was being incredibly stubborn. He led the council. He didn't make decisions because he didn't need to, he already explained things to the council all the reasons and points of view of a given decision and led them to make the right decisions in the first place."

Buffy was silent for a while. Xander having made his point about leadership only reaffirmed her decisions about what she was going to say at the Scooby meeting the next day.

"Alright. Now, next question I have for you Xander is what are your intentions towards my sister?"

Xander was nonplused for several moments, before he could think again. "I… really don't know right now Buffy. Every time I see her and Willow looking at each other like that, it hurts. It hurts because I want them to be happy, and they seem to want to be together. If they do, then I won't stand in their way. If Dawn looks like she's waiting for a chance to make a move on Willow, and Willow looks like she's willing to accept such a move, I'll get out of their way. That will hurt me a lot, but I'll do it cause it's the right thing to do."

"You do have other options you know?"

"Yes, but they are non-options. I won't make decisions for other people, not like that. I can't."

"Xander, that's very noble of you, and I realize that you are hampered by being male, but do try to see what's going on, not just what you are afraid might be." Buffy got up and walked back into the house, leaving Xander to think about her last words. They confused the hell out of him because he thought he was trying to see what was there. He did acknowledge that the problem could be in his basic assumptions, but couldn't figure out what could be wrong with them. If you start with what he thought were perfectly acceptable assumptions, the logical conclusions supported his fears, that Dawn and Willow were attracted to each other. If they wanted to be together, then he would be the responsible adult and get out of their way. It was the only thing he could do and still be himself. That was the responsible adult thing to do, wasn't it? He seemed to think so.


	5. Monday

_Monday_

"Come on Willow, we're going to be late picking Dawn up!"

Willow gave a frustrated cry. "I'm not ready to go yet. You go ahead, I'll teleport and meet you when you get there." She shouted from her room.

"Alright, but don't teleport to school. We don't want to demonstrate our abilities in public, right?"

"Xander, if I'm late enough that I'm teleporting to school, I swear that nobody will see me do so. I will scry my destination before I 'port. Actually, I think I'll just meet you at school."

Xander did the only thing he could do, and gave up trying to get Willow to hurry. She normally didn't bother trying to look good, but her new found confidence in herself and her abilities made her reevaluate her clothing options and she was busy arguing with her hair and wardrobe, totally dissatisfied with her options.

Xander got into his brand new, 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500, and headed for the Summers' home. Being the small California town that Sunnydale was, it didn't take long, and Xander was parked out front of the Slayer's house. Xander rang the doorbell, and let himself in, as he had been doing most of the summer.

Xander called up the stairs, "Hey Morning Light, you ready?"

Dawn answered by walking down the stairs moments later with her purse in a brand new outfit that Xander had certainly never seen her wear before. Dawn was wearing a classy gray skirt, heels, and blouse, white stockings and a black jacket. Xander was a bit broken as she walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Good morning Xander."

"Um, yeah." Trying not to sound too out of it, Xander mumbled.

"Where's Willow? I thought you were both going to escort me to my first day at high school?"

Now that she had gotten his brain working again by heading into the kitchen with him, he was able to answer properly. "She was busy arguing with her wardrobe when I left. She told me she would meet us in class."

"So, I have you all to myself then," she paused for a heartbeat before continuing, "for breakfast?"

"Sure, we just need to hurry up, because school starts soon, and you still need to register." Xander sat and took the offered bowl of cereal.

"Nope. I hacked their computers – way primitive by the way, you could have done it with no problems. I am registered, picked my own classes, which I'm with either you or Willow, or both for the whole day. You do realize that the only classes that you don't share with Willow are Phys. Ed., Wood Shop, and Computer Science. I've managed to work it so that I have Phys. Ed. with you, and computers with Willow."

Xander was busy eating his second breakfast that morning, while Joyce finished her own breakfast.

Joyce was mildly annoyed at hearing about her youngest daughter's hacking activities, "Dawn, I don't want you hacking the school computers. There are rules and reasons that they have the admissions process set up the way it is. You can't just start doing as you see fit just because you can."

"It's not just because I can Mom, it's because someone had to. Tell me, what's my birth date? Do I have any legal ID? What does that ID say? When I hacked the SHS computers, all I did was register myself as Dawn Summers, 17, with my same GPA as I had at Washington Elementary. I made sure that the classes that Willow and Xander were in weren't full, so as to not bother the teachers. I have done everything that the admissions secretary would have had to. All I really need to do is go into the office, have my photo taken for my school ID, and then pick it up at lunchtime. I already have my copy of my schedule, the teachers will receive their notification that I'll be joining their classes when they pick up their morning mail as it should be, rather than being told after the fact."

"We could have avoided all that if you went back to being 12."

"Mom, would you go back to being 12?"

"Well, no, but that's because I've already grown up, you haven't."

"Yes mom, I have already grown up. Force of cosmic nature, remember?"

"And you have how many years of memories as a human?"

"Well, only 12, so you have a point there, but when was the last time you could remember being there for the birth of a galaxy, or seen stars collapse into black holes? How that perspective translates into day to day life is going to be a rather interesting learning experience." She took another bite of her muffin, and re-adjusted her lightsaber from poking her in the side under her jacket.

"You will leave that thing home, right?"

"What thing?"

"The Lightsaber in your jacket that you're going to leave home."

"Mom, this is Sunnydale. Buffy carries stakes, Willow carries her pulse pistol, Xander has his claws, and Giles has an entire armory in the library. Ok, so his armory is all 12th century, but that's beside the point. Everyone who is aware of the dangers of this town carries weapons with them at all times. They wouldn't be caught dead without them, or rather they probably would be caught, and then made dead without them that is."

Xander, looking a bit sheepish, opened his jacket and showed Joyce that he was indeed 'packin heat.' He carried his lightsaber and tricorder inside his jacket, and he slid his tiny type 1 "Cricket" phaser, currently on setting one, from his pocket. "Joyce, it really is a bad idea to be unarmed in this town. Not only can you protect yourself against the things that can stand sunlight and still want to eat you, but you can protect others as well. None of us carry weapons because of ego, or to make ourselves feel like big shots, or to flaunt the rules. Despite Miss Sunshine's gloomy outlook, she is correct. We have kids disappear from school all the time, and occasionally turn up dead, more frequently they turn up undead."

"Dawn is not taking a weapon to school, and that's final. How can you have an environment conducive to learning with weapons all over the place? She is still capable of defending herself as she's got all those force powers you explained Saturday night."

"How can you have an environment conductive to learning when you're worried about being unarmed, and that the next person who walks through the classroom door is going to eat your soul?" Xander asked seriously.

Dawn had tried that argument already. She was tired of having this argument with her mother. They had been having it for about an hour before Xander showed up and were only repeating themselves now. Dawn embraced the Force and spoke to her mother, "I am a Jedi."

Joyce responded, slightly distracted, "You are a Jedi."

"A Jedi goes nowhere without her lightsaber."

Again Joyce repeated, "A Jedi goes nowhere without her lightsaber."

"Get going or you'll be late for school."

"Get going or you'll be late for school," Joyce repeated a final time.

Xander was looking at Dawn rather harshly, but understood why she had mind tricked her mother. He didn't like it, but he understood it. Xander finished his cereal and Dawn grabbed a second large blueberry muffin, and they headed out to the car after Dawn grabbed her purse and backpack.

As they sat down in the souped up hot rod, Xander started the car, then turned to Dawn. "You do know that you can't just Mind Trick your mother to win an argument, right?"

"I know that Xander, but we've been having that argument for an hour before you arrived. It's why I'm wearing the jacket as she saw me try and put it in my purse and just started yelling. She just doesn't understand Sunnydale I guess."

"Well, just don't mind trick your mother without a good reason. Making sure that you can keep at least one weapon on you at all times qualifies as a good reason."

As Xander started to head to school, Dawn answered, "I have no intention to falling to the Dark Side, and we both know darn well that casually flinging mental adjustments about with the Jedi Mind Trick is a very easy path to the Dark Side. I would rather have found another way out of that situation, but I just didn't see one. On the face of it, I would have preferred to be late to school in order to find out why she was so against weapons in schools, even with extenuating circumstances. I just got the feeling from her that, no matter how good the argument for allowing me to carry my lightsaber in school, she would have forbid it anyway."

"Possibly, although, I think you should consider how else you could have phrased your suggestions. An approach that would have been more Jedi, and less Dark Side, would have left her reconsidering her actions and restrictions, but still left her with her free will, giving her the option to confirm or oppose her decision. However, I figure, if we keep the lightsabers concealed, either through mundane techniques or a 'Notice Me Not' type thing, I doubt it will become a problem. It's not like Sunnydale High has a large history of student-on-student violence, so any weapons in the school are not likely to be used against other students." Xander thought for a few moments as he drove quite quickly through the town. "Maybe the anti-weapon thing is a side effect of the typical California anti-weapon mentality."

* * *

It was ten minutes until the bell rang for classes to start that Willow stepped out of the basement and into the hall full of students. She had given up trying to find something to wear about ten minutes ago and decided to use the MAU to help her with her wardrobe emergency. She had the MAU create a brown suede skirt and boots, a green blouse, and gray tights. She also used the MAU to give her hair a bit more curl and much less frizz. She carried neither purse nor backpack, preferring to keep all her things in sub-space pockets that she had created through magic a few minutes ago. All in all, it looked like she just stepped out of a salon, ready for a fashion shoot.

Unfortunately, this was to be the first day that Willow would not be on time to class, in that Larry and one of his buddies came up and grabbed her from behind, shoving her into an unused stockroom. Willow bit one the guy who had his hand over her mouth, and he released her, just long enough to punch her in the face while saying "Stupid bitch! What you do that for?" The punch knocked willow off her feet and into a pile of empty boxes.

"Maybe because two morons decided to grab me in the middle of the hall," Willow sneered.

Larry held up his hand at the other boy, "Enough Bob." Then he turned to Willow, "We are here to give Xander a little message. That message being, 'mess with me, your friends get hurt.' We are going to have a little fun with you this morning, then we are going to mess you up pretty good."

"Well, I don't see an army standing behind you, so that must mean that you don't intend for your message to be delivered very accurately." Willow allowed the magic to flow through her, preparing to cast spells in her defense, and began doing so. First casting a Fear Aura upon herself, leading the two boys to believe that they really had just stepped into some serious shit. She then cast a Time Stop to give her time to cast strength and speed enhancing spells. Just as the time stop wore out, Willow kicked Larry square between the uprights, causing him to immediately kneel, clutching his well-abused privates. She then relieved him of consciousness by breaking his jaw. Bob grabbed willow by the shoulder and tried to turn her around so he could beat her up properly. Willow forced him to release her by grabbing his thumb and bending it backwards until it either broke or dislocated. Moving from there to grab his wrist as she turned around to face him, she proceeded to dislocate and then break several other bones in that arm before bestowing the Minor Curse of Nausea on both boys. "I would suggest, Bob, that you get Larry here to the nurse's office, and then call a lawyer, because you will need one when the police get here."

Willow then opened the stockroom door and headed for the Vice Principle's office to report the attack.

Two hours later, Snider had given Willow two weeks out of school suspension for crippling two of his most popular jocks, completely ignoring anything beyond the fact that the two boys had been injured.

Willow was escorted from the school property, and walked home. On her way however, she realized that she had no way of contacting Xander and letting him know what happened to her. None of the magic she knew could emulate the simple form of telepathy that Xander knew, sure, once she got home and cast Sending, she could let him know, but that spell took 10 minutes. Whispering wind could be cast as simple as you liked, but everyone in the area would know what the spell said, and really couldn't be used in a non-magical society like theirs. She would have to spend some time developing a telepathy spell so that she could communicate with psychics. In the meantime, she would have to get a communicator, but that would have the same eavesdropping problems that whispering winds did. Willow sighed in frustration. There really weren't any good solutions, except to add the telepathy power with the MAU.

So, as soon as she got home, that's exactly what she did. Willow gave herself a basic telepathic ability so that she could communicate with others without line of sight. She gave herself a 20 mile range as that seemed like it should be plenty for anything they would need it for, and if she had to deal with distances common with space travel, then the communicator was more than adequate.

Willow then called Xander through the new ability, _"Xander, I've been suspended."_

This caused Xander to react understandably with a good amount of shock. It could also be understandable to those who knew what was going on that Xander sat up in his desk and practically shouted "What!" Also understandably, as the teacher was not aware of anything beyond the fact that one of her students had decided to disrupt her history class, ordered that student out of the class. Xander dutifully left the class, and instead of heading towards the troll's office as he was supposed to, headed for the library. Xander spoke to Willow over the 'mental channel' _"What do you mean you've been suspended?"_

"_What I mean is that Vice-Principal Troll decided that putting two jocks in the hospital for attempting to rape her was a good enough reason to suspend said girl."_

"_Are you ok? They didn't hurt you, did they?"_ Willow could hear the concern in his mental voice and was comforted by it.

"_No. They were far too incompetent to actually have hurt me, despite Bob being on the wrestling team."_

"_Bob, huh? I suppose Larry wasn't too far from the action?"_

"_He's the other one who got sent to the hospital. I think I broke his jaw, not that I'm sorry for doing so, mind you."_

"_Personally, I would have turned them into Eunuchs."_

"_Oh I didn't go quite that far, but beyond the aches and pains that they will have from various knitting bones and relocated joints, I cast Minor Curse: Nausea on both of them. Should last about two weeks if I used the MAU properly."_

"_Now that is just evil. Aches, pains, vomiting, and diarrhea. You certainly didn't fool around with them."_ This time, there was quite a bit of humor in his mind-voice.

"_Well, they did violate the truce at their very first opportunity, and they did try to rape me in order to send you the message that we don't mess around with them, so all in all, I don't feel very badly about hurting them like I did. Of course, if anything is permanent, I might feel differently, but I don't think so at the moment."_

"_I understand, and I don't blame you one bit. I'm going to stop by the library and inform Giles about what's happened this morning and invite him over this afternoon to hear the rest. The only real question is where to invite him. Think we can break him if we use the Enterprise's conference room?"_

"_Nah, just use the Defiant's ready room. That should be shock enough, and one Federation starship looks very much like any other from the inside."_

"_True."_ It was at this point that Xander walked into the library and announced his presence to the head bookworm. "Hey G-Man!"

Not having been prepared for Xander at this time of day dropped his teacup in surprise. Xander, not wanting to be yelled at for breaking it, caught it telekinetically and set it, unobserved, on the table next to said librarian.

"Good Lord, Xander, is no time of day safe from you and that insufferable nickname?"

"Not really, especially as I just found out that Larry and Bob were just sent to the Hospital."

Giles cleaned his glasses and in a less annoyed and more concerned tone of voice, "My word, Xander, are they alright?"

"They are going to the hospital, I think that that is the very definition of 'Not Alright,' don't you?"

"W-W-Well, yes, of of course, but will they?"

"I suppose they will recover eventually, so long as they avoid me for the rest of their lives. Willow only broke Larry's Jaw, and dislocated several of Bob's joints."

"Willow did this?" Giles exclaimed, cleaning his glasses with even more fervor.

"Yep, Dear, Sweet, Loveable, Willow, just hospitalized two of the school's biggest goons for trying to rape her."

There was a very distinct snap heard, and Xander realized that it was Giles' glasses. "Willow is alright currently, yes?"

"Yes, I heard from her just before I got here. She apparently is unharmed and sitting at home after Herr Troll suspended her."

Giles growled, and considered, once again, simply making the loathsome creature disappear, or perhaps 'encouraging' him to have an accident sometime in the near future.

"May I assume then that the reason you aren't in class is that you will be going to see her?"

"Yep, next stop is Willow's."

"I see. You will call me if you need any help?"

"Sure Giles. I need to meet with you later anyway, so I'll give you a call one way or another and let you know where we need to meet as the where was going to be the library, but with Willow unable to enter school grounds at the moment, it'll have to be elsewhere. I just haven't figured out where yet."

"Very well, Xander, I should be available any time after 3:30 this afternoon. I was unable to find anything over the weekend about that unplanned meteor shower, nor were any of the researchers at the Watcher's Council, so it was most likely an unimportant occurrence."

Xander nearly laughed, but somehow managed to keep a straight face and nod. "Glad to hear it, and I'll see you later." Xander practically ran out of the library so that he could laugh without the librarian hearing it. It wasn't until twenty minutes later that Giles realized that his tea cup wasn't broken, when he slipped on the spilled tea. Fortunately, he was unhurt. Unless you count the very large headache he got from trying to figure out why his tea cup was unharmed, how it got to the table over there, when he was sure that he had dropped it in surprise over here where the little puddle of tea was.

Meanwhile, since Dawn had yet to see Willow in school, and didn't believe for a second that the girl would cut school to go shopping whatever Xander said, especially without anyone knowing about it, she was worried.

Dawn could call up a holographic terminal at will, and also cause one to appear near Xander, or Willow, and find out what was going on, but doubted that Xander would pay any attention to it as he seemed quite agitated, and it might cause no small amount of difficulty for Willow if a holographic terminal should suddenly appear in front of her while she was in public. She couldn't work it like a cell phone without some prior arrangement, like Willow actually having a cell phone. So instead she packed her things and left the class quietly, unable to do anything else. She did however, go to the bathroom and use her computer to contact the Defiant that was still in orbit, and transported to the bridge.

Once there, she made use of the sensors to detect that Willow was at home, and Xander's car, with only one occupant, was on his way there.

Having the information she needed, she transported to Willow's house. What she saw was a fairly pissed off Willow.

Dawn called attention to herself so she wouldn't get shot accidentally, "Willow? What's wrong, why didn't you ever make it to school?"

"Oh, I made it to school alright. I just never made it to class. Larry and Bob – you know, from the wrestling team? – decided that they wanted to send Xander a message, 'be a good little punching bag, or else we hurt your friends.'"

"Since you're not hurt, I assume they are?"

"Bastards tried to rape me, of course they are in the hospital, and very lucky to be alive. 3WA training is rather harsh that way. Add magical enhancements to it, and hurting them was almost too easy. It was over in less than 15 seconds."

Dawn nodded and hugged Willow, allowing her to calm down. They stayed that way until Xander came in. Willow ran over to him and hugged, then Dawn came over and hugged them both for several minutes. Finally calmed, Xander pulled out his latest MAU creation, a Mini-Replicator, and had it make lunch for the three of them.

The Mini-Replicator was about the size of a very thick lunch tray, and he explained that it only had enough memory to store about 2000 patterns, including drinks, dishes, and utensils. It was good for general meals, but not much else, and it needed to be recharged every week. It was also programmed only to produce synthahol drinks, not real alcohol, and as there were no side effects to synthahol, most especially no chance of becoming addicted to the stuff, nor could it kill you, and there were no laws about the distribution to, or consumption by, minors, they each sampled a few of the more famous concoctions while spending the day together.

* * *

It was two hours later when Joyce called Willow's house to inform the teens that she was on her way over to the mansion, and suggested that they meet her there. Xander and Dawn transported, while Willow teleported.

Upon Joyce's arrival, she explained that she had been able to purchase the mansion that they discovered last night. She had already closed the deal, and had keys in hand. "I wound up paying 4 million for the estate, including all the commissions, fees, and the 'I want to own it now' tax. It's in my name at the moment, but I see no reason that all of us can't move in there together immediately as Xander suggested. It seems that Sunnydale has some strange laws, one of which is that people under 25 can't own real estate, but can inherit it." Joyce handed out the four extra sets of keys to the present teens, "In any case, I suggest you all go claim bedrooms." She glared at Xander, Willow and Dawn, "Separate Bedrooms."

The three teens blushed, but nodded.

After having studied the blueprints and scans from the Defiant's computers, they each knew which rooms would be best in their opinions, and which rooms should be left for others. Considering how many suites there were, each quickly grabbed one, with Joyce being at the end of the hall, Xander at the top of the stairs, Buffy at the other end of the hall, Willow took the first bedroom on the right of Xander's, which joined with his, and Dawn being across the hall from Willow.

Willow decided that she wanted to decorate the room herself, and so began conjuring various bits of furniture, bed, desk, vanity, bedside tables, bookshelves around most of the walls, and a few comfy chairs with a matching table to go by the window. Once finished and satisfied with the way everything looked, she spelled the walls to match the furniture, and then cast a permanence spell on everything so that it wouldn't disappear at an inopportune time, like when she was sleeping. The room was open and uncluttered, with a distinct sense of wilderness to it. Willow's room had a sense that you could go out into the forest and put the book shelves up, and if you arranged the rest of her furniture the same way, it would feel like the same room, except that you could get rained on. Willow smiled and nodded her satisfaction, then left to go find the others and help them with their decorating.

Dawn quickly claimed the bedroom connected to hers as a workroom, and let her droids out of their capsules. She took a rather immediate liking to the little R6 droid she had read about. Dawn had also gotten 4 LE series repair droids, 6 Dum-1 series pit droids, and two Droideka from the MAU. They had all been modified to act as slave units to R6. She was satisfied with the droids as they would help her build her own version of Washu's Lab, and the first step was to design and build a high output power generator of some kind. Considering her options, and consulting her computer's technical database, she decided on a quantum singularity generator, similar to that used by a Romulan Bird of Prey. Not only could it produce large amounts of power, but she could also harness the gravity it would produce for other purposes, like Grazers, and Bulma's gravity room. If she added in Holodeck technology to the Gravity room, it would make a very effective training center. Dawn realized just how many tangents she was about to go off on when Willow knocked on her open door. "I'm in here," she called from the second room.

"Where did the droids come from, and why the destroyer droids?"

"Capsule I've been saving for the right time. The Droideka may not be all that useful for anything except combat, mainly because they don't have hands or anything else really, but they are very effective combat platforms. Given that I had the MAU create them with Federation shields and pulse phasers rather than blasters, they should be even more effective as home defense. I suppose we might want to get some other droids for patrolling the grounds, something a bit more humanoid, that way they can do more than just provide security." Dawn was off on another tangent, tapping away at her computer while mumbling, "Maybe a series of armed protocol droids. Might be able to sell them as police droids if they are programmed correctly. Have to do something about weapons and shields, but a standard type II phaser should be sufficient, especially if it's tied into the droids power systems."

"Dawn!"

"Hm?"

"I gotta ask, who all did you integrate, cause you're starting to babble more than me."

"Oh, well, I didn't really integrate any personality, just skills, special abilities, talents, and knowledge of Washu, Gina Diggers, and Bulma. I just don't think I realized how like them I really am, I mean with the going off on tangents at random." She then muttered to herself, "I'm going to have to work on that." Louder, and to Willow again, "I've got all these ideas that I want to work on, and they are all trying to come out all at once, so when I get on a technical bit, it gets difficult for me to remain focused."

"Ok, would you like me to help you to decorate your room now, or would you like me to come back later so that you can explore your tangents?"

"Now's good. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking that you could describe what you want, or show me on your computer, and I'd just Magic up the stuff you wanted."

As they began the process of decorating Dawn's suite, which wound up being a cross between 12-year-old girl and techno-geek, Xander came and stood in the door, waiting for the girls to finish. Xander smiled as he watched the pair working together. It only took about 15 minutes with magic, and they noticed him standing there about 10 minutes after he arrived.

"We're almost done Xander," Dawn informed him.

"Take your time ladies. It's only 3pm and Giles said he would be available in half an hour."

Willow nodded, and one discussion on where to put Dawn's electronics entertainment center later, and they were finished.

"Xander, can I help you with your room later, or did you want to replicate it?" Willow asked.

Xander, noticing how excited she was and how happy she had been to decorate Dawn's room, agreed, "Sure Will, If you tell me that your magic furniture won't disappear on me in the middle of the night, I have no problems trusting your magic to help decorate."

Willow smiled at him and hugged his arm as they left Dawn's room to find Joyce.

After collecting Joyce and Buffy, they beamed up to the Defiant's bridge, Joyce and Buffy heading into the ready room to make snacks.

* * *

Xander, sitting in the Captains chair, called out, "Dawn, connect me with Giles, if you would?"

She nodded and set up the communications interface between the twenty-third century Defiant and the Twentieth century POTS network. Xander checked the sensors that were watching the library, and noticed that he was alone and sitting down and not doing much of anything. Giles answered his office phone, "Sunnydale High School Library, Giles speaking, how may I help you?"

"Hey G-man, you ready?"

"Xander, please desist with that infernal nickname!"

"Sure thing. You ready, or you still busy?"

"I am ready to leave, just as soon as you tell me where you need me to go."

"Well, in that case, stand up?"

"Excuse me?"

"Stand up."

Giles did so, but asked, "Why do you want me to stand up?"

"So you don't fall on your ass when you get here." Xander said with a smile as he nodded to Dawn who initiated the transport sequence.

"Why on Earth…" was the last thing that was heard over communications link. It did continue as he rematerialized on the bridge of the Defiant, "would I fall on my rear…" This time, Giles did not get cut off, but simply failed to grasp what was going on. What had just happened couldn't have in his experience. Even the most powerful of mages found it incredibly difficult to teleport, and he hadn't even done that. He had teleported before, in emergencies, the watcher's council would assemble a group of mages to perform a teleport for either a Slayer & her Watcher, or a council Retrieval Team.

"Because you're not ON Earth anymore. Welcome aboard the USS Defiant, currently 300 kilometers above good old Sunnydale. We are cloaked, and keeping a very close eye on the city as a whole."

Giles began cleaning his spare pair of glasses, "What do you mean, not on Earth?"

Xander pointed to the main view screen, which was currently pointed straight ahead of the ship as it orbited the Earth. Giles turned to look at the display, and dropped his glasses. "This can't be real!" he muttered, and took an injudicious step forward, stepping on his only backup pair of glasses.

"Oh, it's real. Um, did you know you just stepped on your glasses G-Man?"

"Hmmm?" He looked down and saw that he had indeed stepped on his own glasses. "Oh bloody hell."

"Don't worry Giles, we'll get you a new pair." Willow offered.

"Thank you Willow," Giles sighed. At least that was one problem that he wouldn't have to stress over any longer. "Would you three be kind enough to tell me how you got your hands on a Federation Starship?"

Xander grinned and taunted the Englishman, "Giles, you know what the Defiant is? I thought for sure we would have had to explain everything from the ground up!"

"Yes, yes, very droll. Although, I must say that this doesn't look a bit like the bridge of a Constitution class Starship. I am aware of popular culture, just not as enamored of it all as most young people these days. You also forget that Star Trek did go all the way back to my day. I was quite fond of the show. Hull Registry NCC-1764 USS Defiant, Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser. Destroyed by the Tholians."

"You've got the wrong show G-Man, Hull Registry NX 74205, USS Defiant, Defiant Class Heavy Escort, assigned to Deep Space 9 under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko. This Defiant has a working Romulan Cloaking Device, on loan from the Romulans for use in the Delta Quadrant against the Founders. Of course, in this universe, none of that exists, but this ship does, as well as several others. We even have the latest Enterprise, a Sovereign class."

"Enough, I can see that I might have a bit of, of catching up to do. Would, um, you care to tell me how you came to be in possession of technology that, um, until recently apparently, only existed on TV?"

"Sure, how about you head over there to the ready room? Joyce and Buffy should have some snacks ready for us. I still need to bring up Mrs. Calendar, and we'll be in momentarily."

Giles nodded and walked through the door to the Defiant's ready room. He noticed the telephone booth sized metal box with a three-fingered handprint, a black rectangle, and red button, standing up against the back wall, but ignored it for now as less important than the fact that he was on an honest to goddess _STARSHIP_. He greeted Joyce and Buffy, and accepted a cup of tea and sat down to wait for the others to arrive. The china appeared quite lavish, with gold plating around the rim, and labeled USS Defiant, NCC-1764, NX-74205. The teacup itself had a color picture of both Defiant-class vessels printed on it.

Back on the bridge, Xander asked Dawn to place the call to Mrs. Calendar.

"Sunnydale High School, Computer Lab, Calendar speaking. How may I help you?"

"This is Xander, are you available for a Scooby meeting?"

"Sure, I have some time. I just finished up for the day."

"Great, just stand up and then hang up, and we'll bring up."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry, just do it please?"

"Alright, but you had best explain shortly." Jenny hung up and then stood and was immediately grabbed by the transporter.

Jenny appeared on the bridge, looking slightly ill. Willow and Xander went to support her, and she mumbled, "That was most unpleasant."

Willow nodded, "Yeah, that's what I said, so far, you and I are the only ones to have a problem with it. I just stuck with Teleport magic after my first time. Of course, I was a lot worse off than you were, not that you probably don't feel all that great right now."

"It's ok Willow, I'm starting to get my stomach settled. Where are we?"

Xander answered, "Bridge of the USS Defiant, 300 kilometers over Sunnydale, cloaked."

"DS9's Defiant? How?"

"Yep, and answers await your pleasure in the ready room."

Jenny nodded and let the three teens escort her to the ready room, despite the fact that she was rapidly feeling better and was already quite steady.

Xander took his seat at the head of the table, with Willow to his right and Dawn to his left. Further down the left side of the conference table was Buffy then Joyce. Giles and Jenny sat next to Willow.

"Well G-Man, where shall we start?"

"The beginning is usually a good place, and I thought you agreed to stop calling me that?"

"I did, just not when." Xander grinned at the man. "Right then, the beginning. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Giles glared at Xander, "I don't think we need to go quite that far back."

"Really? That's good, cause that's about all I can remember of the Bible." Xander then began to explain how he found the MAU on Thursday night, and how they had experimented with it, and learned to use the device, which just so happened to sit in the corner, right over there. After a brief adjournment for dinner, Xander continued with what had happened over the weekend, and when Giles realized that the young woman sitting with them was Dawn, he groaned and wished for a pair of glasses to clean. Xander finished with what had happened that morning, and what they had done since.

"And Buffy has agreed to remain the slayer?"

"Yep. Her only request was that you not be our, well for lack of better term, party leader."

"I see, and who does she suggest?" Giles asked the teens.

"She suggests that our new leader is Xander, says the girl being treated in the third person," Buffy complained.

Jenny asked, "Interesting, but why?"

"Well, for one thing, he understands why I didn't want to be the Slayer. I wasn't given a choice, just bam, chosen to suffer a short life fighting the things that go bump in the night. Xander gave me that choice, and when he explained why he did, I couldn't see any of the rest of us making the same decision, we tend to accept what is, and leave it that way. Xander sees what is and tries to make it better. He's even promised to let me play with the machine. Said he had a few suggestions on how to make me a better slayer, but still remain me. Other than my mom, would any of you have given me the choice, or would you simply have gone along with the whole Chosen One thing?"

Everyone thought about what Buffy had said for a few moments.

Once it seemed that everyone had accepted what she had said, Buffy continued, "Our leader can't be Giles, as he has to follow the orders of a group of people who obviously don't have a Slayer's best interests at heart, or they would, as Xander pointed out, provide a greater support network for the slayer. Nope, according to the Council, the only support I need or should have is Giles, no offence."

"None taken. I always wondered about that myself. I could understand that the Watcher might be a Field Researcher, and a leader when they aren't fighting, but I always wondered why the council didn't provide a fire team to support the Slayer in combat. Bullets don't kill, but they do hurt and can incapacitate a Vampire long enough to make it a worthwhile tactic."

"My mom also can not be our leader, as she would want nothing more than to protect her daughters at the possible peril of all life everywhere, should the hell mouth open, as is appropriate for a mother." Joyce smiled at her and nodded her head in agreement, still not liking the situation, but not really seeing any way around it.

"We can't make Mrs. Calendar our leader simply because we know so little about you. The few times she's been able to help us, it's been a great help, but that doesn't make you a leader." Jenny nodded at the logic as well.

"While I may want to be leader, Xander is right, I don't do such a hot job of it. I nearly got everyone killed. When in the heat of battle, that's where the slayer is best and knows what orders to give. The Slayer in me wants nothing more than to get straight to that point, which makes it not so hot otherwise. So, between Xander, Willow, Dawn and Cordelia, I think that Xander would be the best choice, especially since he's got all these nifty-cool plans for that whole humans survive thing and they seem to be working out so far."

This of course started a discussion of what all Xander had planned to do, now that he had all the things that he did. Buffy and Willow excused themselves as the discussion started so that they could take care of their assigned patrol, so, with liberal usage of the replicators to create tea, coffee, and sodas, Xander and Dawn explained, in some detail, what they had planned and why. This lead to a discussion of what the MAU was capable of, and Giles confessed that he would need to report the existence of the devices to the Watcher's Council. "The, um, the news stated that, that there were over 150,000 meteors in, or rather as part of, that meteor shower on Thursday night, and and more over the weekend, so it's anyone's guess as to how many of those devices are currently on Earth. I can only say that it's most fortuitous that they will cease working after, um, after 4 days. However, that's still 4 days during which people will be using the devices to god only knows what ends, and what happens when a demon gets it's hands on one?"

"I don't know what will happen when a demon grabs one, assuming that it is still active when he does, I think most demons would try to pass as humans, just like humans would typically prefer to be stronger and faster than other humans, or demons should they know about them. Demons are already stronger and faster than humans, but they can't pass through our society without attracting a whole lot of attention that they don't want. So we wind up with Mr. Balor in a brand new Edgar suit. Of course, there is the possibility that he MAU simply won't work for a demon, but if it's alive, the MAU should work for it, meaning that the Undead shouldn't be able to use it. Of course, the limitations of the device are that it can't create life, nor will it cause harm, other than that, it is Ranma's Rules."

Jenny smirked, while Giles and Joyce looked a bit perplexed until Jenny took pity on them, "Anything Goes. Ranma is a character in an anime. He's a martial artist who studies the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, or that's the common translation anyway."

"So, this, um, machine, as it were, should have no, um, difficulties in fixing my eyesight? N-N-No more glasses?" Giles inquired.

"Correct, but then you loose your nervous habit, and then where would you be?" Xander quipped.

Giles only glared, "But you would allow us to use the device?"

"Of course, Mrs. Summers already has. She wanted a Green Lantern Power Corps. Power Ring, and we convinced her to balance it out a bit with a few other things, and eliminated the ring's weaknesses. So, G-Man, Mrs. C., what would you like to be today?"

After a brief tutorial on MAU usage, with an absent minded warning from Dawn on the possible dangers of not being specific with your thoughts, Giles stepped up to the control panel, and began entering his desired modifications. First he got rid of his need for glasses. Permanently. Breaking two pairs in one day was a bit much, even if there were extenuating circumstances. He then altered his genetic pattern to conform to the Meyerdahl Beta package, the same as Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Countess and Steadholder Harrington, Captain of the List – RMN, Admiral – GSN, preferred styles of Coup De Vitesse at 8th rank, as well as Grand Master rank in Grayson-style sword fighting. He added an old west style gun belt with a heavy pulser pistol with several spare power and flechette packs. In the pocket of his suit coat he added the Doctor's Sonic Wrench, and then wondered about the capsules that Xander had used to get his car, he took his hand from the palm reader, "Xander, Might you give me a bit of help here, I-I find myself at a bit of a loss actually."

"Sure Giles, what do you need?"

"The, the capsules that you used to get your car and these starships, how, how do I use the MAU to, to get the car I want?"

"Well, there are a number of ways, but I could just drop the knowledge of what they are and what they do into your memory. It would only be temporary, but you could also use the MAU to reinforce that memory, say with Total Recall. And since you like books, I might suggest the always-useful psionic power of speed-reading? I think that would be easiest."

"There, um, there are no side effects?"

"Um, other than a slight craving for Twinkies, I doubt it."

Giles glared at him.

"Just kidding G-Man." He said with a small but non-repentant grin.

"Very well, though I never believed I would ever utter this phrase to you, educate me."

Xander did so, dropping the knowledge of how to ask the MAU for all three items, Total Recall, Speed-reading, and the Capsules, into Giles' memory and announced "Done."

"Thank you Xander." Giles put his hand back onto the palm print, and added the capsule to his weapon's belt, and then put a 1967 AC Shelby Cobra 427 in British Racing Green inside the capsule. It was, in his considered opinion, the only color for a British roadster, and this particular model should be able to beat the pants off of Xander's Mustang. This being southern California, he did modify it to include a modern air conditioner, then considered and eventually added a few other safety modifications, like seat belts. As a convenience, he also added in a state of the art CD player and speakers, a powered convertible roof, rearranged the dash so it was more readable and user friendly, and then really started to add in some gadgets that were reminiscent of James Bond. Bullet proof, Machine Guns, RPGs, ejection seats, tire spikes, adaptive camouflage, a P90 in the glove box, land mines, multi-mode missiles, and a few other toys before starting on his own personal gadgets, sunglasses with X-ray vision, telescopic and microscopic vision, Ultra-violet and Infra-red vision, and light amplification modes, laser torch and bomb remote detonator in the wrist watch/compass/GPS receiver, grapnel line in the belt buckle, explosives in the heels of his shoes and cufflinks, the tie-tack that was a miniature camera that took pictures in all the same vision modes as his glasses and was operated by tiny buttons on his college ring, a cell phone that reads bugs and tracking devices and acted as a remote control for the Cobra, tranquilizer dart in the pen that could write in ink that only showed up under ultra-violet light, the pencil that allowed one to breathe underwater as it used charcoal rather than lead, a pocket knife that included a miniature gaschromatigraph for chemical analysis, and a powerful computer built into a cigarette case, and yes, it even carries cigarettes that fire tracking devices and a lighter.

Xander slipped in a lightsaber with a blade the same color as Giles' car, as well as the basic training in lightsaber use and basic force sensitivity, leaving anything else up to the librarian to figure out for himself. It would provide a rather accurate danger sense, but anything else would require training. Giles activated the machine and stepped out grinning, "I can see again!"

It was short-lived euphoria as it was this time that he noticed that Jenny appeared to be having difficulty with making some kind of decision. "Wh-what's wrong Jenny?" he asked.

She looked at Giles, sighed, and looked at Xander. Made a rather significant point out of making eye contact with the teen. She tried to share all the feelings of conflicting emotions that she was having. "You know, don't you." It wasn't a question, but an obvious statement.

"What I know is what you've shown me Mrs. Calendar. I know that you feel conflicted. I know that you've been keeping secrets for some time. Those secrets protect you, but protect others more. You feel honor bound to reveal those secrets, but you also feel oath bound not to, which is the root of your conflict. Also, revealing to us that you know that I know that there are secrets indicates that you've decided that you will be sharing those secrets with us, before those secrets can tear insurmountable holes in our relationships. My offering to let you use the MAU is merely the catalyst that has brought the conflict into crisis for you. You feel that you can't use the MAU as you might otherwise. If you don't come clean before you use it, everything after becomes tainted. Would we really have allowed you to use the MAU if we had known the secrets? The use of the MAU under such circumstances might constitute a major betrayal of trust, one that may be irreparable, depending of course on the content of those secrets that you've already decided to share with us. It was only ever a question of when, for you," Xander said.

Jenny smiled sadly, "Sure, just read my mind."

"No, just your behavior."

At this, Jenny raised her eyebrow, "In either case, you are correct. I am whom you've always known me to be, personality wise anyway, but my real name is Jana Calderash, and my family is Gypsy. I was sent here to ensure that Angelus continues to suffer under the curse that my clan placed upon the demon."

Giles was upset. He felt betrayed, but Xander was correct in what he had said, if she hadn't confessed now, she never would have been able to in the future. Lord knew he had a few secrets of his own that were dead and buried. He sat down opposite from Jenny, er, Jana, um, "er, um, what do you prefer we call you by, Jenny or Jana?"

Xander quipped, "Well, if that's his biggest question I don't suppose we'll be needing security any time soon…"

"I think I would prefer Jana, if it's alright with you all. It's the name I grew up with after all."

She paused to thing for a moment, "By revealing to you what I have and am about to, a case may be made that I have failed in my instructions, which in turn can be interpreted as an act of betrayal. If I am found guilty of betraying the clan, well, let's just say that punishment wouldn't be pleasant. When Liam moved here from New York City, under the influence of a balance demon I believe, I was sent here to keep an eye on him, make sure that the curse remained in place. They gave me a crystal that indicated the strength of the curse upon the vampire, which I have been dutifully monitoring. Unfortunately, all it does is report the current strength. I have no idea what causes increases or drops in strength of the curse. I do know that if the curse is broken Liam dies again, and Angelus is released once more upon the world."

"And they didn't feel it necessary to share the details of the curse?" Dawn asked.

"No. I asked, strenuously. I was told that knowing the details was irrelevant to the completion of my task. I would have told them that I wouldn't do it without the knowledge, but again, refusing to follow the orders of the Elders is most frequently seen as a sign of betrayal of the clan, which is punished most harshly."

"Do you know what the purpose of the curse was?" Giles asked.

"Well, to a limited extent. Lore has it that an old and distraught woman with our clan when she placed the curse upon Angelus as punishment for taking the last of her family from her. I was told by the elders that the curse inflicts the demon by giving control of the body back to the soul that originally inhabited the body."

Everyone was quietly contemplative about these revelations when the universe decided to show its infinite perversity again.

Willow and Buffy walked back into the ready room.

"That was a quick patrol Buffster."

"Two groups of five and a threesome. I didn't even get my hands dirty. All willow did was twitch and that pistol of hers was in hand and we had dusty vamps as quickly as she could squeeze the trigger. For once in my life since I became the slayer, I don't even have the munchies."

"Well, that's good then, isn't it?" Dawn asked.

"Yes, but we found an empty grave," Willow answered.

"A, um, A second Fledgling?" Giles asked.

"Nope. This one looked dug up."

"Ok, I mean really, who would want a dead body?" Xander asked.

Giles answered, "Uh, it, it would rather help to know who the, um, body belonged to."

Buffy informed them, "She was our age, Meredith Todd. She died recently."

Giles asked, "Do you recall how she died?"

"Nope."

Xander spoke to the Defiant, "Computer, Access Sunnydale Coroner's office for a Todd, Meredith between the ages of thirteen and eighteen."

Moments later, the computer returned the information that they were looking for. Everyone read the results for themselves. The girl died, along with two other Fondren High Pep Squad members, in a car accident of a broken neck.

Buffy asked, "Well, you know what this means."

"Fondren's in the lead for the cross-town body count this year?" Xander joked.

"No Xander, it means she wasn't killed by Vampires. Someone dug her up."

"So, a body snatcher means what Giles?" Dawn asked.

"Well, the two possibilities we ought to worry about m-most are, are a Voodoo Practitioner, or a, uh, a Demon looking for a soul to consume."

"Zombies?" eeped Willow.

"Well, um, well, yes, however, for the typical uses a Voodoo Practitioner would have for a zombie, w-w-would require substantial numbers of them."

"Then we need to beam down and check for other grave robbers?"

"Yes. I suppose we will have to go tomorrow night, I have a pair of shovels in the library." Giles stated.

Dawn, looking horrified at having to dig a body up when there was an ample supply of advanced technology that could be used instead, "Giles, Giles, Giles, We have the MAU. We have advanced sensor technology. We have Phasers that can vaporize meters of _rock_ in seconds. Hell, we have _STARSHIPS _for crying out loud. Grab a tricorder, a comm-badge, and a phaser. That's standard away-team gear. Even in the original series they had tricorders that could read through 6 feet of dirt."

Giles looked flabbergasted. "I hadn't thought of that." He felt that these kids were creating a world that he had absolutely no clue about, and he was beginning to suffer from culture shock of a form that he never expected, especially from one that was so close to the one he had grown up knowing. He was having difficulty keeping up, but at least the modifications that the MAU had given him were starting to help. He had remembered in perfect detail about the Zelogian demon's penchant for eating the flesh of humans in order to devour their souls. Perhaps Dawn might be willing to provide a reading list, of sorts. He would have to ask later.

Xander and Giles beamed down to the gravesite they expected to find belonging to one of the other two girls, and asked, "So, are we hoping to find a body or no body?" Xander pulled his tricorder out and began scanning the grave.

"Um, well, body would mean our opponent is a flesh-eating demon, no body would, um, would point towards the, uh, army of zombies thing. Take your pick, really."

Xander double checked his tricorder to be sure of what it was saying, then informed Giles, "Well, looks like someone's trying to 'be all that they can be' cause Miss Nowak here's gone a walkabout."

"Well, let's be sure and, um, check Miss Clark then. She should be just, uh, just over here," Giles said as he led Xander to the other girl's grave.

Xander quickly scanned the grave, and once it was confirmed, "Nope, she's gone too."

"Well, um, I suppose that means army of zombies, is more likely then."

"Yeah. Come on, let's get back to the Defiant. Jenny still gets to use the MAU then we need to give everyone basic phaser training."

Xander and Giles beamed back to the Defiant and reported their findings. Jenny eventually asked, "So, how does 3 girls equal a zombie army?"

"Zombie drill team then?" Xander quipped.

Giles glared, as he was required to, and Xander continued, "Anyway, my scans of the graveyard indicate that less than 5 of the graves still had occupants. That could go a very long way to explaining the vampire population around here, however, it also makes it impossible to determine just how many zombies we might be looking at here. Not only that, but our Voodoo guy may just be passing through, stopping just long enough to pick up a few more zombies for his army and moving on to whatever his eventual target might be. This is probably good news in that we won't have to deal with it, but someone will. If the Hellmouth is his target, then you all need a crash course in phaser use."


	6. Tuesday

_Tuesday Morning – Cheyenne Mountain_

"Good Morning General Pierce," the general's aide greeted the older gentleman as he came to attention.

"Major Thompson, anything interesting happen last night?"

"Yes Sir. NASA sent over an image from the Hubble you've got to see to believe, and even then, you'll swear that someone's playing a joke." The major handed over a Top Secret file that the general opened and examined the image within.

"And this isn't supposed to be some kind of joke Major?"

"No Sir. Not unless someone has altered the Hubble's software. I re-downloaded the morning batch of images myself."

"In my office major, and close the door." The General turned and walked into his office, tapping the folder against his leg absently.

The major of course, followed his general and dutifully closed the door before standing in front of the general's desk at attention.

"If this is a joke, I had better learn that it's being played on this whole command, and not just on me, clear Major?"

"Sir, Yes Sir! I have been unable to prove it as a hoax so far General, and I've got some people checking the Hubble's software right now Sir."

General Pierce gave a lengthy sigh. His Commandant told him there would be days like this. When no matter how badly you wanted something to be a prank, it wouldn't be, and you'd be the one who had to deal with the outright insane. "At Ease Major. Can you offer any possible explanations as to how what appear to be a Star Destroyer and The Enterprise from the latest movie, can show up in a Hubble Image without it being a prank?"

Before the Major was given a chance to answer however, there was a knock at the general's door. General Pierce closed the Top Secret folder and called, "Enter."

A young Lieutenant opened the door and entered the room, closing the door behind him. The Lieutenant walked to Pierce's desk and handed another Top Secret folder to the General.

General Pierce commanded, "Report Lieutenant."

"Sir, this just came in from the Mauna Kea Observatory over the encrypted connection. It was taken with the Keck II Telescope after they confirmed that it could not have been a hoax on their end. They have been observing the two vessels since they spotted them, but they are about to loose Line of Sight. They have handed observational duties off to the McDonald Observatory in Texas. Texas says that they will be able to observe them for the next 7 hours, so long as they don't move. After that, they will also loose LOS and have to hand it over to one of our overseas Observatories."

"Anything else Lieutenant?"

"Not at this time General."

"Dismissed Lieutenant." Pierce saluted the Lieutenant without paying any attention to him as he was already staring at the pictures that the junior officer had just delivered.

Once the door was closed he acknowledged the Major again. "I guess that this confirms it then, take a look." The general showed a series of six images that all appeared the same except for the time stamp in the bottom right corner, all containing the Enterprise-E. The next six images were at an even greater magnification, showing the Hull Markings bearing the legend "U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E" in gold letters between two red stripes on what appeared to be a bare metal hull, amongst other significant hull details. The next 24 pictures were all of the Star Destroyer, again with the first six showing just the ship with very little space around it. The remaining 18 were all close ups of hull details, including phaser strips, the impulse manifolds, the Launch Bay, and the two large domes that contained the Solar Ionization Reactors, which was a fancy way of saying that they contained two tiny stars. One close-up detailed what may have been its hull registry in black on a white hull. Unfortunately it was written in Basic, so neither officer could determine what it actually said.

"Well?"

"Sir, I really don't know what to say. I can only suggest forwarding it to the SGC and Dr. Jackson. I doubt that he'll already know this script, but if anyone can figure it out, he can. I just hope they aren't hostile."

"Alright. I'll pass the buck to General Hammond, start forwarding everything to him. I'll take these down there myself, it's been a while since I've seen him."

"Yes Sir."

* * *

_Newly Christened Scooby Mansion_

Xander crawled out of bed, and after visiting the bathroom to take care of his morning duties. He stumbled down the stairs to the still mostly empty kitchen, and ordered a large breakfast from the replicator he had left there in lieu of shopping for groceries. He already had it plugged into the wall outlet so that it would continuously recharge slowly.

Shortly after, the rest of the residents also began making their way downstairs, with Dawn being the last with a disgruntled look upon her face, blue lips, shivering, and glaring at Buffy at every opportunity.

Eventually, Xander noticed and asked the predictable question, "Dawn, what did Buffy do that you're trying to glare holes in the back of her head?"

Dawn crossed her arms, "Some how, she managed to use up all the hot water. Don't ask me how, but she's managed to do it to me again."

"Um, you know we've got a 200 gallon hot water heater, right?"

"Yeah, but she's the only one here with pink and prunie skin, while my teeth are chattering away."

Willow had also noticed that Dawns nipples were still harder than erasers from the cold water, and were making their presence known through her blouse. Xander had also noticed, but was trying to maintain eye contact with the angry girl.

Xander walked over to the replicator and ordered a mug of Hot Cocoa and delivered it to Dawn who smiled at him, "Thanks."

"Well, I'm sure we can do something to make sure that the hot water doesn't run out."

After swallowing a bite of toast, Joyce mentioned, "I know a guy who does remodeling. He did our house before we moved in. He told me about a kind of heating element that is basically installed at each faucet so that you never run out of hot water. It's usually used in up scale places like this where the hot water heater is a long way from a given bathroom that the water is cold by the time that it gets to that bathroom."

Xander asked, "Can you speak to him today? See if he has one of those that he can install for Dawn?"

"Sure, I only need to be at the Gallery for a few minutes today. I need to clean up some space for an Incan display coming in next week. We're doing a sale in conjunction with the Sunnydale Museum's Incan Exhibit in two weeks."

"Just make sure to invite Giles over to make sure that none of it is magical. Don't want anyone walking away with something that's going to suck out their soul or unleash a plague of something nasty," Xander warned.

"That's a good idea Xander, I'll call him when I get to the gallery."

Joyce, having the smallest breakfast, finished first, and wished everyone a good day and left for the gallery.

"So, what's everyone else got planned for today?" Xander asked.

"Um, it's Tuesday, don't you three have school?" Willow asked in return.

"Not unless it's to Tar and Feather the Troll. We should find a lawyer. We might be able to get him fired if we sic the lawyer on the school board."

Dawn suggested, "You know, we could take our G.E.D.s and not have to worry about school any more."

Buffy was concerned, "But what about the other school things, like, Prom, and Homecoming?"

"We don't all need to get G.E.D.s, and it might help to have someone more responsible than Cordelia there to keep an eye on things," Dawn commented. "I would like to, especially with everything that I've learned thanks to the MAU. I spent several hours going over the material on my computer, and it is very detailed. We're not just talking the technical schematics for the various technologies, but all of the supporting technologies and entire branches of scientific study. Today, I could prove Quantum and String theories and explain how transporters work and how to fold space around a space craft allowing it to transition from one end of the galaxy to the other instantaneously."

"That's a lot of reading Dawn. Did you get any sleep?" Buffy asked.

"Of course, I could only do that stuff in the most general of terms, but the math behind it is established, and already on the computer. I tried to upload it to the Defiant, but it didn't have the room for it. I had to store it at Utopia Planetia as they have the only other computer with enough secondary storage to hold it all. If or when we deploy Spacedock, we're going to want to make sure that it has enough storage capacity."

"Well, I'm going to head off to school. Keep an eye on the Hellmouth, Snider, and Cordelia. That sort of thing." Buffy said as she excused herself from the conversation and the table.

Xander bid her good bye with a "Have fun Buffster" and turned back to Willow and Dawn. "Ok, so anyone got any ideas as to where the best place to put Capsule Corp would be?"

Dawn pulled up a holographic terminal and had it display a map of the property. "Just how big is it Xander?"

"Most of the factory stuff is sub-surface. It has a foot print of about two acres, pretty much in a square. Has 5 floors up at its tallest point, and 150 down at its deepest, so around here it'll be well under water."

"Ok, we don't have to worry about cave instability then. The place where it would have the least impact on us living here, and still allow business access would be over here on the south side. Basically, it's just a huge lawn with no real purpose other than to be big and green. It's on the opposite side of the house from our bedrooms, but Buffy will have a really good view of it." Dawn pointed on the map as she commented, and Xander considered it for half a second before agreeing. "After my shower this morning, I think she can put up with a change of view."

"Sounds good, shall we go find out if this capsule works properly, or if we have Sunnydale's first Sky Scraper?"

With both girls agreement, Xander linked arm and arm with Willow and Dawn and went off to see the Wizard, er, future site of Capsule Corp & Rebellion Technologies.

* * *

The three teens arrived a few minutes later at the site indicated on Dawn's holo-map.

"Anyone else nervous, or is it just me?" Xander asked.

"Just you Xander. The MAU hasn't let us down yet, I don't think it'll start now."

Xander tried to shake off his feeling of disquiet, hauled out the tiny capsule, hit the button and tossed it a few feet away. Seconds later, the smoke had cleared, and the entire Capsule Corp building was sitting exactly as it should. Several feet away sat the main entrance to the massive complex.

Dawn, still using her computer, and Xander with his tricorder, began scanning the building and the surrounding area.

"It looks like the building just phased out all the materials that got in its way. Other things got pushed around until it was safe, then the building materialized. Over here, on the east side, there's 6 gophers all trying to sort themselves out of a gopher pile. The rock and dirt look like they were cut to fit the building perfectly. There is literally no gap between the building and the natural rock formations, it's almost as if they are fused together at the molecular level," Dawn commented.

"Interesting. I guess it's not moving much then. How's it's position look otherwise?" Willow asked.

"It's in about as perfect a position as it can get. My computer certainly can't find a better position for it."

"Good. It looks like everything is here as well. The Gravity Room is that building over there, and the computer core and basic assembly lines appear to be intact and functional. The computer core is even online. Looks like the building also has its own fusion reactor providing power to the whole thing," Xander reported.

"Xander, that Fusion reactor is producing 32,000 KWh more than the factory and computer need. Where's the rest of the energy going?" Dawn asked.

"Well, if I remember Dragonball Z correctly, you should find that a portion of it is headed towards the Gravity Room, another portion should be headed towards medical, and the rest should be headed towards Bulma's lab. Speaking of which, we should go check it out. Make sure that there aren't any experiments left running. Bulma usually had anywhere between a half-dozen and two dozen experiments running at any one point in time, so we should make sure that they get shut down safely."

Dawn looked sheepish, as she was embarrassed that she hadn't thought of that. Willow now had a similar feeling of trepidation to match Xander's earlier gut reactions. "Lead the way Xander."

Xander nodded and led the two girls off towards Bulma's lab, following the tricorder readings for what he assumed to be the lab.

When they arrived, they did indeed find most of the equipment on and doing, well, doing something. " Well, you know more about this equipment than either of us Dawn, can you shut it down safely?" Willow asked.

"Sure, it'll just take me a few seconds," Dawn told Willow. She turned back to the central control panel and began examining the status display. After a few moments of intense scrutiny, Dawn spoke again, "Computer, Initiate safe shutdown of all experiments, and step down the reactor."

* * *

Jenny sat at her computer in class. She had dismissed everyone early, as she had been most distracted. In a few minutes, she would be using a piece of alien technology to give herself anything that she wanted. That was a good thing, but it was also problematic in that she didn't know what she wanted right at that moment.

She was a Gypsy, and as such, knew a good bit of magic, more, certainly, than Willow had before the girl had used the MAU. Yes, she would most likely improve her magic, but in what ways, and to what degree? There were a number of different schools of magic that she knew of. There was the Techno Mages of Babylon 5. They were certainly powerful, but hardly manipulated arcane forces. Instead, they manipulated technological forces in order to emulate arcane effects, such as demons, trolls, and fire balls.

Alternately, she could go with Slayers Magic. It was an interesting anime about a 16 year old sorceress by the name of Lina Inverse, and her adventures in committing banditry against bandits, pirates, and other groups of bad guys. Slayers magic was certainly quite powerful, and would either work well on the Hellmouth, or not work at all. That had to do with the nature of the magic that Lina practiced. Lina had very little magic of her own, but she knew enough other Powerful Entities that she drew upon to cast some of the most powerful spells in existence, including one that was the equivalent of a tactical thermo-nuclear warhead, and another that made nuclear weapons look like firecrackers. That was what Slayers referred to as Black Magic, magic powered by outside forces. The two alternates, according to slayers mythology, is White Magic, which is powered by the user's own life force, which is dangerous, but extremely powerful, and Shamanistic Magic, which is powered by manipulating and altering the natural forces of the world around the mage.

Then again, there was magic from the various role playing games that she knew of, or at least had heard of. Dungeons and Dragons, Rifts, War Craft, the White Wolf games of Mage and Vampire, the Final Fantasy series. Heck, even Everquest had a decent selection of magic to play with. There were probably about 300 other RPGs out there that she could draw inspiration from.

And that was where her problem came in, what to choose?

Then there was the problem with the other side of things. There was so much fictional technology out there she wanted to learn, and didn't know which to choose. She realized that she could learn many of them, if not all of them, but she didn't want to wind up suffering from Information Overload.

She wasn't getting anywhere just sitting here and thinking about it. Dawn and Willow had already used it to learn about various forms of Technology and Magic respectively, maybe they could offer some insight into her decision. She packed up her things as she decided to talk to the two girls about what influenced their decisions, and how they narrowed down their choices.

After finishing collecting her things, she pulled a small golden pin from her purse and placed it on her chest, then tapped it. "Calderash to Defiant, One for transport. Engage when ready."

Moments later, the classroom was empty.

_

* * *

__Cheyenne Mountain_

General Pierce sat in General Hammond's office, still discussing the ramifications of the two starships existence, when Dr. Jackson burst in with an excited mien. Without looking up at the man, Daniel avoided the visiting general and started placing documents on the desk in front of Hammond, "General, the writing appears to be in English, just with a different script. As speculated, the writing is in deed the name and registry numbers for the ship. It appears that the ship is called _Aurora's Forge_. Although what significance that might have is beyond me at this point, most likely means something in a context we are unfamiliar with at this point." Daniel looked up and noticed a bemused Gen. Pierce and a flustered Gen. Hammond. "Oh, sorry sir, I didn't know you had company."

"One of these days Dr. Jackson, oh never mind. Good work on the translation." He looked over the brief report that Daniel had placed in front of him, then handed it to Gen. Pierce, who also looked it over. "Dr. Jackson, please have the rest of SG-1 and the leaders of the rest of the on-base SG Teams meet me in the briefing room in 20 minutes."

"Yes General. It was good seeing you again General Pierce." Daniel said as he hurried out of the room, still appearing inexplicably excited to the two Generals.

"Now I understand the sergeants around base when they refer to Hurricane Daniel." General Pierce chuckled.

"It wouldn't be so funny if it was happening to you," Hammond smiled, realizing that, yes, it was amusing, and Daniel would most likely never change. It was how he did his best work, totally absorbed in something so esoteric that few others would understand.

"Oh, I don't know, I was able to fix my version."

"How did you manage that?"

"I married her." Gen. Pierce smirked.

"Somehow, I don't think that solution will work in this instance."

"No, I don't think so either." Gen. Pierce looked pensive for a moment. "Well, I'd best leave you to it George, I'd love to sit in on that conference, but I've got my own people to organize over this mess."

"I think you're just running away before any more paperwork can land on your desk David. Personally, I wonder what else Daniel has for us before I make my report to the President."

"Good luck George, and have fun." With that, Gen. Pierce left Hammond's office.

Pierce was the only other general that Hammond knew that had a similar sense of humor to his own. And Jack O'Neill's. His last gift to George had been a 21 year old bottle of Glenlivet. It had come in a fire extinguisher case with the words 'In Case of SG-1 Break Glass' stenciled on the glass. They had been friends a long time. Many minutes of thinking about how they had met and become friends later, He himself decided it was time to head towards the briefing.

_

* * *

_

A large being in black robes who's face is hidden by a strange, watery mask, walks in review of his troops, one hundred thousand strong, all standing in formation, awaiting their God's blessings.

The troops themselves all wore a metallic gray armor, and stood with their large, oddly shaped, staves by their sides. These were his newest conscripts, the last survivors of a planet called Birhat.

"You have done well, my warriors. Soon, I will once again have sufficient strength to return amongst my brothers and take my rightful place amongst them as their lord and master. You," he broke off his brief speech and looked away from them, back towards the Milky Way proper.

"Something has changed." He considered the sensations he was feeling. There was a new source of power he was feeling, something he had never felt before, like the fundamental constants in the universe had shifted ever so slightly.

As the figure in black contemplated his senses, one of his warriors hurried towards him from the hallway. "My Lord, we have arrived at the Planet Narhani."

Shaken from his thoughts, "Reduce the planet to rubble. You have 12 hours to harvest the remains before we leave. Something has changed, and I must discover what." He then walked away from the troops and retired to his throne room where he could think, and examine this change in further detail.

_

* * *

_

Jana was just getting her stomach back under control when Buffy made the request to beam up as well. Standing up and getting out of the way, Buffy beamed in, and Jana welcomed her, "Hello Buffy, here to use the MAU as well?"

The two women walked off towards the captain's ready room. "Yeah, I'm just not sure what I should ask it for. A lot more training seems to be the best I can come up with, and I'll admit to a little bit of jealousy to everyone being able to move stuff with their minds or a simple little spell. I've never been all that much into the Fantasy scene, more of an Action kind of girl."

"Then maybe that's what you should start with, Telekinesis and several forms of unarmed combat. It does sound like a good place to start anyway. Maybe you should ask the computer for a demonstration of the various Martial Arts forms in the Holodeck. That way, you know what forms interest you. Or, you could simply ask the computer for a stylistic comparison between them, in which case, you should be able to get it to include the fictitious styles as well. Me on the other hand, I have a whole lot of things I want to do, but I don't want to do them all because other people are already doing them. I don't want to make myself or others superfluous. I'm doing this because I want to make a difference, and I want to try to find a way to do that without stepping on Dawn and Willow's toes."

"So what is it that you are thinking about?" Buffy inquired.

"Well, it would be nice to add another form of magic, one that none of the others already know. I also want to work on robotics and androids, see if I can't incorporate the good aspects of each of the different designs into something that works in the real world without the help of the MAU. Then again, technology _as_ magic was always an amusing concept for me, so I might try for something in that direction as well."

Buffy appeared in thought for a moment, "What was that show Dawn was talking about a few days ago, she said that they did a little bit of that, making a gun that shot magical spells and other stuff like that. I think she said it was on Japanese TV right now."

"Interesting, I'll ask her about it."

They arrived at the bridge, and spotted Xander sitting in the captain's chair, working with a PADD, and Dawn at the science officer's station.

Jana went over to Dawn to talk about the show Buffy mentioned, and Buffy went to speak with Xander to see what he could do to help her research the martial arts like Jenny mentioned.

"Hey Dawn, Buffy mentioned a TV show you were talking about a few days ago, something about a gun that shot magical spells?"

Dawn looked up, "Huh? Oh, um, Outlaw Star I think it was. It finished its TV run in Japan over the summer. What did you want to know about it?"

"What can you tell me about the magic used on the show, or the manga that most likely preceded it?"

"Well, from what I've heard, its mostly just Gene's Caster Gun that has a lot of various special purpose caster shells. Caster shells are basically shotgun shell sized and produce a specific effect when fired. The shells themselves mimic various Chinese Magic spells and other special effects, like a shield breaker. Of course, there are other, non-magical, standard shells, like explosives or slugs. Don't really know much more than that as I haven't seen the show yet."

"Well, as I said to Buffy, Interesting. It does sound like a fun read when it does come to America."

"So, do you know what you want to do with the MAU yet?"

"Sort of, I was thinking Engineering and Robotics, some other form of magic, maybe Slayers magic, then finally some Technomagic."

"What's Technomagic?"

"You know about the Technomages from Babylon 5? Technomagic is what they do, using technology to imitate magical effects."

"sounds like fun, assuming that you know what spells you want to start with."

"Well, I figure that I'll start with a bunch that are good for fighting demons and vampires, and of course, some of the other basics. I do agree with Buffy though, I think I'd get jealous very quickly if I didn't get at least a little bit of telekinesis like everyone else." Jana said with a smirk.

"You might want to pick up a basic Jedi package in that case. So far, Xander is the only one who doesn't at least have Force Sensitivity, but he's got that whole Neo Human thing going for him, so he might be better off. Well, I guess Mom doesn't have it either, but she does have the lightsaber as part of her costume."

"That does sound like a good idea, got any others?"

"Not really, I'm sorry I don't know you very well, or I'm sure I could offer other suggestions."

"It's ok Dawn. I was just curious as to how you might expand my list of possibilities."

"Well, let's go visit the MAU and see what you've got already?"

"Sounds like a plan then." The two women left the bridge and visited the MAU in the small executive office off the bridge, otherwise known as the Captain's Ready Room.

Meanwhile, Xander and Buffy are having a similar conversation revolving around Buffy.

"Hey Xander, can you give me some help choosing what to get from the MAU? I've got a few ideas, but don't know how to take advantage of them."

"Sure Buff." He said as he put his PADD away for the time being and turned to face her. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, Jana suggested some formal training in the martial arts, and I could hardly argue the idea, but I know so little about them, I wouldn't know what to ask for from the MAU. Given the martial arts is the general direction I want to go in, what other suggestions do you have for me?"

"Well, given the way you like to fight vampires, I would suggest some of the harder styles of martial arts. I would also suggest keeping them well rounded to prevent over-specialization. Given that most demons are difficult to kill without a weapon, and usually a stake won't do it, I suggest some sword proficiency as well."

Buffy thought about this answer for a while and asked Xander to elaborate on which styles he would suggest.

"Well, I suppose you should start with something hard and brutal to deal with the vampires, Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art. Kenpo Karate and Shaolin Kung Fu would certainly form a very strong base from which to base other, more exotic and specialized arts on. Tai Chi Chuan has a lot of really good sword forms, and Hiten Mitsurugi has many special techniques. If we also give you Ryoko's Energy Swords, you'll be able to create a sword at will, and even be able to throw them so you'll have a ranged attack as well."

"Wait, who's Ryoko?"

"Ryoko's a Space Pirate, from the anime _Tenchi Muyo!_ She can fly on her own, and phase through solid matter, but I didn't think you'd be interested in those, considering your lack of interest in Sci-Fi and Fantasy in general."

"I don't know, the flying might be interesting. I don't suppose she's got Telekinesis?"

"Nope, but if your interested in it, it's easy enough to add separately."

"Yeah, it's the one thing Jana and I agreed on earlier, we are starting to get a little jealous of the rest of you with your own forms of telekinesis."

Xander chuckled, "Happened completely by accident, and I don't think Giles has figured out that he can do it as well, or there would be books floating around him nearly constantly, soon as he could do it without having to concentrate. Can you imagine his reaction if he accidentally dropped a book?"

Buffy giggled at the image that Xander had conjured, agreeing that causing harm to a book was anathema to the watcher. "Come on, lets go do this thing, and go get some food before going out on a patrol. While we do that, you can explain what Herr Troll did yesterday that has the three of you dropping out of school, and talking about lawyers and school boards?"

"Sure Buff." Xander led her into the Ready Room and Dawn and Jana were just finishing with the MAU, Buffy programmed it with what Xander had suggested, and Xander sneaked in the regeneration abilities of a Demi-Sayijin from Dragonball Z.

* * *

As Buffy and Xander patrolled, Xander explained what happened to willow on Monday morning that had lead to her suspension and soon to be expulsion. Willow had already visited the Police station and sworn out a complaint against Larry and Bob. Willow didn't swear out a complaint against Snyder because she wanted to wait and see if he really would expel her, or if he was just trying to scare her. Her plan at this point was, if it was simple scare tactics, to make a complaint to the school board, and see if they did anything. If not, file suit against him for his actions, then file suit against the school board for failing to do anything about him. If he did expel her, she would skip the bit about giving the school board the opportunity to fix their mistake in allowing the pig to continue in his position and move straight to filing suit against both Snyder and the school board.

For a little bit of fun, when they did encounter a small group of vampires, Xander went in and fought them hand to hand, using his claws to carve them to pieces, dust flying everywhere as body parts disintegrated as they were separated from the body. Eventually, there was too little of Xander's three vampires to be a threat to anyone, and he decapitated them easily. Buffy went through her 3 vampires just as fast as Xander did, using an energy sword to hack them to pieces before going for easy neck shots.

"So, telekinesis next time?" Xander asked.

"Sure, we've already done the ranged energy thing, and the melee thing, it's really the only thing left."

"Cool. Limit it to two stakes, and who ever gets fewer vamps buys breakfast?"

"You're on."

Twenty minutes and 7 piles of dust later, Xander had won their little competition, and were on their way back to the mansion.

"Come on Xander, Double or nothing, you and me when we get back to the mansion. I know we have at least one empty room to make into a sparring room."

"Alright Buffy, you can have your chance to even the score between us. But I have to tell you, I'm looking forward to lunch…" Xander said with a smirk.

* * *

Buffy and Xander stood facing one another in fighting stances in the mansion's gymnasium. After loosing to Xander in the Vamp competition, Buffy had wanted a little bit of payback, not having to buy breakfast would have been nice too, but now she owed him lunch as well. Xander had long ago won, and instead was simply helping her integrate her various art forms into a coherent fighting style, helping her to learn to switch quickly and seamlessly between styles, between ranged and melee attacks, as even a moments pause in a desperate fight could mean her death.

Buffy and Xander both reacted to an opening in the other and they both used telekinesis to throw the other across the room. Xander was lucky to twist himself to land against the wall feet first, and used it to control his landing. Buffy wasn't so lucky, and bounced off the wall and landed on her face.

"Good shot Buffy," Xander congratulated her.

"If it was so good, why am I on the floor? Again?" she retorted hotly.

"I got lucky, or I'd be on the floor as well."

"Well, that's a little comforting anyway," Buffy said as she got back to her feet. She turned to look at the others who were watching and asked, "Well? What do you think?"

Giles responded first, "I think you are doing a lot better than you were last week. Your fighting skills have certainly improved, but then, that's precisely what you picked up from the MAU. Your improvisation is still very good, and you seem to have successfully integrated the five martial arts styles you picked up into your fighting."

Joyce agreed, "I think you are doing wonderfully Buffy. Although, I am surprised you two were fighting for nearly an hour."

Willow commented, "I think they both did really well, but I'm curious as to what Jana finally decided on?"

Jana Calderash, aka Jenny Calendar, smirked, "Well, I didn't choose any of those fighting styles, but I did learn a lot of things from the MAU. I learned magic from several different perspectives, as well as some very interesting science and technology concerning robotics and artificial sentients. Although, without access to a decent laboratory, it would likely take several decades in order to develop even the simplest of android."

"No worries, Jana, I'll have Data set you up with a large laboratory space, and assign a few assistants to you. They may only be droids, but they should be enough to carry out most tasks you would have for them, but you'll have to find out how capable they are for yourself."

After a bit more playing around with their new found powers, everyone heads for home and bed.


	7. Wednesday

_Wednesday early morning, Sunnydale High School_

"Ok, so why are we examining the locker contents from the geeks in the science club again?" Buffy asked Giles.

"Because, we need to start somewhere, and if anyone is going to try to build an army of zombies, the Science Club and the Film Club are the two most logical choices. If we find nothing, then, we'll just have to think of something else."

Buffy opens Chris Epps locker. "Future surgeon here, but nothing to suggest he's in love with the undead." Buffy closes the locker door and moves on to the next one on the list.

Giles closes his own locker door. "There is absolutely nothing in Mr. Fujishima's locker. That is unusual."

"Not really, he's always carrying everything around with him in that big duffle bag of his. I would have been more surprised if there was anything actually in his locker."

"I see. I suppose there would be no way then to remove him from consideration." Giles had the next locker open shortly, as did Buffy. Giles blushed and quickly closed his, as it was mostly women's undergarments. "I don't think, er, that is, Junko Asami, is um, unlikely to be our mastermind."

Buffy looked at Giles after he stammered more than usual. "What makes you say that?"

"Her rather, um, intimate shall we say, um, apparel. Not much else in there actually."

"Well, this Miss Silber is clean as well. There's nothing here except textbooks."

Giles nodded and moved to the final locker on their list. After inspecting it, he said "Well, as Doug Masters here appears clean, I, I believe that's all of them for now." Giles states as he too closes the final locker. "I, I imagine we'll just have to think of something else."

* * *

_U.S.S. Defiant_

Dawn looked down at her sensor console. _That's certainly not right, _she thought as she ran a diagnostic on the sensor array. Two minutes later, the diagnostic gave the array a clean bill of health.

Dawn tapped her communicator, "Dawn to Xander. I think you had better get up here. I've got some sensor readings that you aren't going to believe."

"What do you have Dawn, I'm helping the droids install your water heater."

Dawn thought for a moment, deciding that she really didn't need to interrupt his _valuable_ work that badly, decided to explain over the comm. "I've got a large mass of neutrino emissions and gravimetric distortions coming from CheyenneMountain, Colorado. All the readings indicate a stable wormhole opening. According to the database, the readings are coming from below the NORAD instillation."

"That isn't possible Dawn, NORAD doesn't share their base with anyone."

"Yeah, well, I don't know how else to explain these readings, maybe NORAD expanded their base, but whatever the reason, there's a wormhole opening inside that mountain right now."

"Alright, I'll take a look at the sensor logs once I'm done here, keep an eye on that area for me, and we'll see what you and Willow can find in the computers once she gets back from the lawyers office."

"The wormhole just vanished." Dawn verified the readings from her panel. "It looks like it was a temporary, but stable, wormhole. I'll keep an eye on the area. This is one mystery I want to solve as well." Dawn thought for a moment, "Come on up as soon as you're done, though, Defiant Out."

_

* * *

Law Office of Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe_

Willow, dressed in business attire, sat in the reception area of the most reputable law firm in the Sunnydale area. They weren't the largest, as that dubious honor went to Wolfram & Hart. They also didn't have the best win record, which also went to Wolfram & Hart. What they did have, was integrity, and the very important ability to win against even Wolfram & Hart when they could prove things scientifically beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Miss Rosenberg Mrs. Howe will see you now." The receptionist indicated a door, which willow found lead to a short hallway, at the end of which was an open door that read Julia Ward Howe, Attorney At Law. As Willow entered the office, an elderly woman stood from behind the desk and shook Willows hand.

"Hello Miss Rosenberg. I understand you have a problem with Principal Snyder?"

"Yes. He suspended me after I defended myself during an attempted rape. He also informed me that if I made a legal issue out of the matter that I would be expelled instead of suspended. I have already filed charges with the police against the two jocks that I hospitalized, and the police say that they will look into it, however I am concerned that they will not do a very good job at it, or that they will listen to whatever Snyder has to say and take his word as fact."

"I see, and you have reason to believe that what he has to say will not in truth be fact?"

"I have reason to believe that he will do everything in his power to make sure that I wind up expelled from school at the very least, and I can even see him attempting to have the police charge me with whatever he can come up with for hurting his precious jocks. Obviously, I wish to prevent him from doing so."

"I see." After a few moments thought, Mrs. Howe continued, "Would you be willing to give me some background information? Specifically, I would like to know about the relevant relationships between your self and these jocks and any other ancillary persons. Then, I think I'll need to know about the incident itself and anything you can tell me about what you think led up to the incident."

Willow gave the lawyer all the information that she had asked for, leaving out references to Vampires, demons, magic, and of course, the MAU.

"Alright Miss Rosenberg, I'll take your case. Do you know if the boys in question have been released from the hospital yet?"

"No, I'm sorry, I don't know, but I think they may be."

"Alright, Miss Rosenberg, I will begin by interviewing the two young men who attempted to assault you. I will wait on submitting a subpoena to the school board until we find out what exactly Snyder's next move is going to be."

"In that case, I think I'll leave you to your work, unless there are any other questions you have for me?"

"Not right now, but if you could make arrangements with my secretary over the next few days for an interview with Mr. Xander Harris, I'll use his information to add weight to the various charges we will be making."

"I'll ask Xander to make the appointment when I see him later today."

"Thank you, and it was nice to meet you Miss Rosenberg. I hope you have a pleasant day."

With that, Willow exited the law offices.

_

* * *

U.S.S. Defiant, Geo-synchronous orbit over Sunnydale_

Xander walked onto the bridge and asked, "Ok Dawn, what have you got on that wormhole you found earlier?"

"Well, not much I'm afraid. The sensors did record the entire event, and it's definitely artificial and stable for the duration that it was open. Given the Neutrino and anti-proton emissions, I would estimate the size between twenty and thirty meters at the event horizon, assuming everything we know about wormholes holds true for an atmospheric event."

"And you're sure that it opened inside the mountain?"

"Yes. Sensors indicate that there is a second base below NORAD, and the wormhole opened in what appears to be the 28th sub-level. There are several rooms that appear large enough to contain a wormhole that large."

"Ok, so it's possible."

"That's what I've been telling you."

"Ok, ok, I get it. Have you been able to access their computers remotely yet?"

"Not yet, I was waiting for Willow. She knows more about computers than I do."

"I doubt that Dawn. She may have known more about computers a week ago, especially the hacking thing, but all three of the characters you got knowledge from, all knew more about computers than Willow, and were probably better hackers as well. You should be able to get in, copy their systems, and get out without their even knowing that someone was there."

"Thanks Xander, I'll give it a shot." Dawn began making connections to various satellites in order to start hacking the SGC computers, and Xander walked into his ready room so as not to disturb her.

Ten minutes later, Dawn began downloading the SGC's mainframe.

_

* * *

Cheyenne Mountain – SGC Mess Hall – Early afternoon_

Jack sat with Teal'c and Daniel, "Look, Daniel, all we're saying is that we want an impartial opinion. T just can't see it from my perspective."

"It is not that I can not see it from your perspective Colonel O'Neill, I do not agree with your assessment of the capabilities of the two craft. The evidence does not support your conclusions."

"Guys, I just think that there are more important things to think about at the moment, like where those two ships came from." Daniel replied.

"See? That's exactly how we got started on this argument."

Teal'c quirked his eyebrow, then stated, "Indeed."

"Ok, fine. Show me the data on the two ships." After examining the data for a few minutes, Daniel reached a decision. "I'm sorry Jack, I've gotta agree with Teal'c on this one."

"But, it's the X-wing! A single X-wing blew up the Death Star. No other starfighter has blown up something the size of a small moon." Jack complained.

"The Tie-Defender is the superior craft."

Before the argument could go any further, "SG-1 Report to the briefing room," came from the loudspeaker.

As Jack, Daniel and Teal'c left the mess hall, Jack said, "I still say that the X-wing is way cooler."

"That may be O'Neill, however, the Tie-Defender is still the superior craft."

_

* * *

Sunnydale Junkyard – A few minutes earlier_

Cyan Lightsaber blade clashed with Emerald Green as Xander taught Dawn some of the more advanced moves that he thought she could use against the local demons and vampires.

As they broke apart again, Xander said "good. Try that other combination next." And the mock battle was rejoined. Both striking and blocking with great proficiency, Dawn delving into the Force to guide her actions, and Xander using his chi to elevate his reaction time to compensate for Dawn's use of the Force.

Dawn was slightly distracted by a disturbance in the force, and Xander tagged her with his blade. Dawn Crumpled to the ground unconscious. Fortunately for Xander, all the blades he had designed had a stun mode to the blades, as did Dawn's. Moments later, Xander heard the explosion coming from a few blocks over.

As Xander considered what to do about the latest development, he also heard the staccato cracks of heavy machine gun fire. Xander quickly woke Dawn with a brief nudge of a telepathic probe, the mental equivalent of knocking on someone's door.

"Ugh, what hit me?" she groaned as she woke up.

"A Lightsaber set on Training Mode. Sounds like some people could probably use our help."

Another long burst of automatic fire focused her attention and finished waking her up as only the sounds of close combat can.

"What are we waiting around here for then? Let's get over there and find out what's going on."

Xander nodded and picked her up and flew towards the sounds of gunfire.

_

* * *

First National Bank of Sunnydale – A few minutes even earlier_

Vincent was a rather irate young man. His girlfriend of the week had turned him into a girl a few days ago with a strange looking telephone booth. Sure, the lesbian sex was great and all, but when he went to turn himself back into a man he had discovered what all else it could do and forgot about turning himself back into a man, and instead got this suit of Terminator armor from the table-top war game he played, Warhammer 40,000. He had made the suit capable of creating any of the other items from the game, and then had gone to go blow off some rounds in the abandoned quarry near his home. By the time he had arrived back at the girlfriend's house to return himself to his masculine form, the machine had stopped working. In a fit of rage, he had killed his girlfriend and a few other people.

Now, he was running from the law, not that anything the military had could put a dent in his armor short of Nuking him, but between Oregon and Mexico, he had wanted food, and since he was out of money, and already branded a criminal, decided that the easiest way of acquiring the money, had been to rob a bank. Good plan that. He was working his way down the coast and it was about 50 miles from the last bank he had robbed this morning. He was working his way down to Mexico so he would be safe from prosecution. He was still grumpy about being stuck in a woman's body though.

Sunnydale seemed like a good place to stop and rob another bank, pad out his funds a little more. It would probably be expensive to bribe some of those Central American bureaucrats, and he had already learned the horrors of the exploding dye pack.

As he walked through the door to the bank without opening it, he equipped himself with an assault cannon that immediately materialized in his hand and shouted, "Everyone! This is a hold up! Anyone pushes a panic button, you all die. Anyone fails to follow my instructions, you all die. Bank manager, comes here now, everyone else puts their faces in the floor!" Slowly at first people started to comply until Vincent let off a burst of automatic fire into the ceiling, at which everyone dropped to the floor. The bank manager did, slowly and fearfully, work his way over to the maniac wielding the automatic weapon.

Once the manager arrived, Vincent told him "I want all the paper money in the bank in a bag, I want it five minutes ago, and if when I leave, I find any of it has been damaged by a dye pack, I'll come back, and everyone dies. Am I clear?"

The manager nodded emphatically, "Yes Ma'am. Very clear." And he scurried off to fulfill the instructions, being very careful to avoid dye packs, as he didn't want to wind up dead.

Inside of five minutes the manager was back with two large canvas bags that were full of nearly all the money the bank had.

"Very good. Now then, is it safe to assume that you all want to live, and that there are no dye packs in these bags?"

"Yes Ma'am. No dye packs."

"Then I shall leave you all with your lives." Vincent grabbed the two bags from the manager and headed for the front door and felt the plink of a rifle round bouncing off his armor. The manager was already hurrying people out the back door when Vincent turned around and said "Someone pushed a panic button…" and threw a grenade towards the manager and a large group of people. That grenade, designed to take out large masses of lightly armored opponents from 38,000 years in the future, exploded sending fragments shredding through the bank patrons and employees. The shock wave was also strong enough to create a large cloud of dust that went past Vincent and billowed out into the street. A few small fires lit themselves from explosion, and Vincent could see them through the dust cloud.

As Vincent stepped out of the bank again, and cleared the dust cloud, he felt a few more impacts from the, now 4 squad cars, that had arrived at the bank. Vincent let off a burst of fire from his auto-cannon and shredded one of the squad cars and took several rounds to the armor in response.

Still having taken no damage, he shredded another cop car, and tagged one of the officers, only 6 more to go. The police began falling back, leaving the cars to provide some cover for their withdraw, and still popping off a few rounds at the armored whack-job. And just where did said whack-job get a suit of armor like that anyway, and why don't cops have something like it by now?

Vincent tracked the cops withdraw with his auto-cannon firing as they went. He managed to down two more cops before he got hit in the chest by a glowing golden ball of energy. The internal computer tracked its trajectory back to a man and woman standing on top of a building across the street. The man actually gathered some energy between his hands and threw another of those energy balls at him. This time, while it didn't hurt the armor any more than the last one, Vincent did feel the impact, but no more seriously than catching a medicine ball. Not wanting to see how strong those balls got, he fired a long burst at the pair, and they ducked for cover. He went back to looking for more cops to kill, but didn't see where they had finally disappeared to because of the man's distraction. Vincent let off another façade shredding burst at the ledge the couple was standing on.

Meanwhile, up on the roof, Xander tapped his com badge, "Xander to Defiant, Requesting immediate back-up! I think we've got an MAU user down here shooting up the bank and he's got some heavy duty armor!" Xander pulled his cricket phaser from his pocket and set it to maximum before popping up and shooting the guy in armor Dawn did likewise from the other side of the roof to force the person to split his fire between them. This way, when one of them was forced to duck due to weapons fire, the other was free to fire. Too bad they couldn't use heavier weapons, but collateral damage would have been too high.

Willow answered the Xander's mayday, "What do you need Xander?"

"Try to lock on to the suit of armor with the transporter and stick him in a holding cell."

"I'll try." Another burst of fire from both sides and Willow was back saying "I can't get a lock. Something about the armor is scattering the transporter's sensors."

"Ok, send a message to Giles, Jana, and Joyce, let them know about the situation. I want Giles up on the Defiant coordinating our efforts, but get the other two down here and bring us some pulse phasers. I need to get close enough to this guy to try freezing the armor psionically."

"Alright Xander, I'll be down as soon as I send off the messages and grab the phaser rifles."

Xander and Dawn were doing a fair job of keeping the guy in the suit of Terminator armor pinned down, but Vincent was getting frustrated. He couldn't kill either of them, and every time he tried to take a shot at one of them, the other shot him with some kind of laser or one of those glowing yellow balls of energy. This was effectively a stalemate, and since he had no backup to come rescue him, he really didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary to find out what kind of backup they had.

Vincent decided that it was time to leave, and to do so, he would need to leave these interfering twits a distraction. So, Vincent conjured a Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Las-cannons and an Assault Cannon. Speaking to the walking tank, Vincent said, "There are two people, a man and woman, on the roof of that building. Your job is to keep their attention as long as possible so that I can remove myself from the field of battle. The Emperor demands my immediate presence. Kill the Heretics if at all possible. Expect them to receive reinforcements."

The Dreadnought spoke with a clearly machine voice, "EVEN IN DEATH I STILL SERVE."

Xander heard this from his rooftop and said, "Oh, this is so not of the good…" just before the Dreadnought fired its Las-Cannons and shot through the wall right next to Xander. "Off the roof now! Find cover and continue hitting them!"

Dawn obeyed immediately and jumped off the side of the building and fired once more at the machinegun wielding whacko. She had just enough time to ignite her Lightsaber before she had to intercept the beams from the mecha's Las-Cannons. Xander decided to risk the collateral damage, and charged up a more powerful attack before loosing it at the Terminator just before it teleported a good distance away.

"Xander to Defiant. I don't know how, but that suit of armor just transported about 500 yards down the street. Try getting a lock on it again. If not, I had better start coming up with a Plan B, and I'm open to suggestions!"

Moments later, Giles replied over the com-link, "Infernal computer still can't get a lock Xander. I suggest you fetch a phaser rifle from Willow then pursue the first target. Allow the ladies to gang up on the, um, what did Dawn call it? A, um, Mecha? With their diverse capabilities, they should be able to divine a weakness to exploit rather rapidly."

"Sounds good Giles, where's Willow?"

"Computer reports that she just left the armory, so she should be either with you or Dawn now."

Xander looked around for Willow, and not seeing her, flew to where he knew Dawn was from the phaser fire. He may have had to go around a few buildings, but he didn't take long in getting there. Willow handed him the rifle in her hands, already set to pulse on level 16, the rifle's maximum setting (and most power hungry), before un-slinging another from behind her back, setting it quickly and firing a few pulses at the mecha. "So Xander, what's the plan?"

"I liked Giles' suggestion. You ladies get to play with the gear head here, while I chase down the armored clown. Jana and Joyce should be joining you shortly. I don't think we need to worry any more about collateral damages, but do try to be a little careful of civilians still in the area."

Dawn intercepted another Las-Cannon blast with her Lightsaber and gave Xander a kiss before throwing one of Willows Photon Grenades at the mecha. Willow also gave him a kiss, couldn't be left out after all. Xander, not entirely sure what had just happened, and not knowing how to keep his girlfriend from getting upset with him for kissing Dawn, ran away, er, flew towards the fight he at least understood.

"You and I need to have a talk when this is over, Dawn."

"Right now, I'd give you a kiss too, but I'm a little busy with this walking toaster oven Willow."

"Ok, definitely talking when this is done…" Willow said as she began casting.

On his way after the armored suit, he passed Jana and Joyce, already in combat gear, Jana in a Technomage Suit, and Joyce in the Green Lantern uniform plus weapons belt. Fortunately it didn't take him long to catch up, as the armor didn't seem to be able to teleport very frequently. He was however, moving away from the bank as quickly as he could on his own. Xander noted that he was going to pass through an empty intersection shortly, and deciding to risk the damage to the area, charged up the largest Ki Blast he was capable of, then waited for his target to reach the intersection before releasing it. It hit causing a brief flash of light and a large explosion. When Xander could see again, the armor was laying face down in an impact ditch about a hundred feet from where he was hit. The armor looked to have taken some damage with the entire back half covered in carbon scoring.

Inside the armor, Vincent shook off his groggy-ness at having experienced such a strong impact explosion and checked the armor's tell-tales. He received several cautionary messages, but no warnings yet, so he got up, looked around for the helicopter or jet that had fired the missile at him, but found only Xander floating in mid air, charging up for another full power blast. Vincent checked the charge meter on his personal teleporter, noting that it was only at half charge and thus not available for use yet. Vincent looked back up as he raised his Assault Cannon to fire just in time to have his vision blocked out by the image of another of those high powered energy balls and he was blown into another hundred foot impact ditch.

Ok, time to leave. No more messing around. He issued the command to his suit to conjure up some transportation, and as the suit knew of only one vehicle that was allowed to carry Terminators, it conjured up a Land Raider, a very large tank, covered in weapons. He climbed in before Xander could let off another of those accursed energy blasts. He grabbed the emergency controls in the rear compartment and drove off, slowly at first, trying to get a feel for the controls, then rapidly as he gained proficiency.

Fortunately for Xander, where he was, the Land Raider's weapons just couldn't aim. He was too high and directly behind the tank, trying to kill it, both with phaser blasts and with Ki blasts but nothing he had could put a dent in the super-heavy tank armor. "Giles, this is Xander. You're still with the Defiant?"

"I am."

"Good. Activate the emergency Command, Tactical, and Engineering holograms, and bring the ship within weapons range. Nothing I have can hurt this tank, so I'm going to leave it to you to track it out of town, and blow it up with a photon torpedo."

"I shall consult the computer and endeavor to do as you request, but are you sure the computer can do all that?"

"That's what the holograms are for Giles. You tell them what to do, using normal spoken English, and they carry out the details."

"Very well, I shall do so." Giles closed the communications channel before saying, "Computer activate the Emergency Command, Tactical, and Engineering Holograms."

As one, the three holograms appeared on the bridge near their stations, and the command hologram spoke, "Please state the nature of the emergency."

"We are tracking a hostile tank through the city below. We have friendly units in the area that do not have the fire power to kill the tank and take its single crew member into custody. We have been ordered to track the vehicle as it leaves town and hit it with a photon torpedo once it clears the town."

"Understood sir." The Command hologram said and sat down at the pilot's position while the tactical hologram went to the tactical station, and the engineering hologram, predictably, went to the engineering station.

Giles, still sitting in the captain's chair asked, "How long until we are within firing range?"

The tactical hologram answered, "We are technically within range now, sir, however atmospheric entry has been known to damage torpedo guidance, and I recommend that we reenter the Earth's atmosphere before firing. This will also give us a stronger lock, and less likelihood that we may miss or that the target may be able to evade the torpedo."

"Very well. Um, command hologram, I'm afraid I didn't get your names."

"That's because we don't have names. Typically, we are referred to by our duties, such as 'Doctor' or 'Engineer,' however, in my case, I'm usually referred to by the highest rank I'm permitted to emulate, which is typically a 'Commander.'"

"I, er, I see. Do you concur with Tactical?"

"I do."

"Engineer, do you concur as well?"

"I do, sir. We will of course have to drop cloak to fire the torpedo, and the cloak will not fully protect us while within the atmosphere. In addition, we will need the main shields active in order to make atmospheric entry. Unfortunately, the Defiant does not produce enough energy to run the Cloaking device and the Main Shields at the same time so we will need to enter un-cloaked as well. Also, if we go supersonic several governments would be able to figure out generally where we are and how big we are. It wouldn't be enough for the technology of this era to get a weapons lock, but they will be able to track our progress through both entry and egress from the atmosphere."

"How long w-would we need to have the cloak off to-to make the shot, um, all things considered?"

"Entry will take approximately one minute, and to fire a torpedo would take about 15 seconds.

"Tactical, what range would you prefer to fire from to give you the best shot possible?"

"5 km above and behind would be the ideal position for an In-Atmosphere Photon Torpedo shot."

"Commander, can, can you make that happen, um, while exposing us to radar a-and imaging as little as possible?"

"I can. If we wait to begin the decent until the target has left the city, we can make the torpedo run and be cloaked again in the shortest amount of time."

"I see. How long do you estimate it will be before the target leaves the city?"

Tactical responded, "Two minutes at current speed and driving patterns."

"Alright then, unless the patterns change, then in two minutes, we will begin entry and make the torpedo run…"

_

* * *

Back at the bank_

Before splitting up again, in order to try to force the Dreadnaught to split its fire between them, Willow had cast Armor of Ithan, Impervious to Energy, and Protection from Normal Missiles on both Dawn and herself. So far, that part of the plan was working. Too bad for them that it was the only part of the plan that was working. Phaser fire only seemed to distract the machine, and scratch the paint up a bit. Willow had even tried the Bloody Card and a few of Yuri's other toys like the Gee-M grenades, which were effective in restraining the thing for a short time but ultimately useless as they hadn't really been able to capitalize on the brief moments of incapacitation. Willow also tried the M-155 Mirage decoys, but it utterly ignored them. Heck, even the Photon Grenades she had brought down from the Defiant had really only tossed the thing around a bit and left big holes in the concrete. Willow had at that point switched to magic, throwing Delayed Blast Fireballs, Acid Balls, Cold Balls, Lightning Bolts, and then resorting to reading the damned things aura to see if she could maybe Banish the thing, or try to control it in some way, only thing she could really determine was that it was already dead, but wasn't undead, and it wasn't animated by either magic or psionics, which was really pissing her off because it meant that there was some serious technology at work here besides the things armor.

Willow did pass all this information on to Dawn who was also working away. While Willow was trying everything she could think of, including conjuring a Kitchen Sink and throwing it telekinetically at the mechanical monstrosity, Dawn was attempting to analyze the thing with one of her holo-terminals. While the information that Willow had sent her helped her narrow down what it wasn't, it really didn't help identify what exactly it was or how to stop it, other than "Shoot it with bigger guns than they had at the moment." The only thing that she could think of at the moment was to attempt to turn its own weapons against it. Dawn tried a large mirror meant to reflect lasers in high energy experiments, but it just switched to using its Assault Cannon instead. She had wanted to set up a program that would open tiny teleport windows in front of its weapons and set the exit point to target the things back, but her lab wasn't complete enough to generate the windows that she needed. When she had suggested it to Willow, the tactic had only been successful once.

And just where the hell were Mom and Jana anyway?

That unfortunate moment of frustration proved to be rather painful for Dawn, as she was struck in the shoulder by a round from the Dreadnought's Assault Cannon. It also proved to be unfortunate for the Dreadnought in that it was then that Joyce and Jana arrived.

"DAWN!" Joyce screamed as she saw the spray of blood from her shoulder as Dawn spun in mid air from the impact. Joyce, now seeing the world through a green tinted red haze, delved deeply into her ring's power and created a giant hand which she used to smash the Dreadnought into the ground, then picked it up and started to beat the pavement of the surrounding area with the foolish machine. Once she got tired of dribbling it like a basketball, she conjured another hand and began pulling the Dreadnought apart, limb by robotic limb before working enough rage out of her system that she could think clearly enough that Xander would probably want the remains, and flung the bits, encased in a nearly solid green bubble, at the moon.

Jana, seeing that the mecha was going to be dealt with in short order, began checking Dawn over, making sure that she was still alive and that she would stay that way. Dawn had lost quite a bit of blood from the .75 caliber bullet that had struck her shoulder, and as such, was rapidly entering shock. Through her Technomage Suit, she sensed the Defiant's entry into Earth's atmosphere, and tracked its general course towards their current location. Jana quickly placed Dawn into a Medical Stasis Technomage spell, and tapped her Com-badge, "Jana to Defiant, Two for Emergency Transport direct to Sick Bay." Moments later, they were both gone.

Jana and Dawn appeared in the Defiant's tiny medical ward, and Jana quickly lifted Dawn to one of the two bio-beds and nearly shouted at the computer "Activate Emergency Medical Hologram!"

As the familiar image of the Doctor appeared, he began the obligatory statement, "Please…"

"This young woman's been shot with a large caliber bullet and is loosing too much blood for you to finish that sentence. She is in medical stasis, but I'm not skilled enough to hold it much longer. The bullet missed all of her vital organs, but has shattered her shoulder blade and a good deal of skin on her back is missing. What can I do to help?" Jana replied very rapidly after interrupting the hologram.

The doctor grabbed a medical tricorder from its charging station and scanned Dawn. Noting that things did indeed look grim, he activated the bio-bed's sterilization and stasis functions. "You may release your control on her stasis; the Bio-bed will maintain it for the moment. Should I expect other patients shortly, or will this be my only patient for the moment?"

"Just the one Doc," she said as she released the spell.

"Very well. I should be able to handle this without much difficulty in that case. I will need an assistant during the operation to repair her shoulder, but first we must stop the bleeding and get her blood pressure back up. Do you have any medical training?"

"Nothing that you would consider as such."

The doctor nodded and selected several tools from nearby cabinets and drawers and placed them on a tray which he placed on a stand near the bio-bed. "Very well, then I will rely on you to keep everyone who doesn't need to be in sickbay, out so that I can work." He began working quickly and with great skill in repairing the internal damage caused by the bullet, slowly working his way from the inside out. Once he finished with the front, the easy part, he flipped Dawn over and began working on her back.

He had only taken remote notice when his 'assistant' had taken a call from what turned out to be the girl's mother a few minutes into the operation. The mother was apparently searching for the girl, and was relieved to discover that she was already being tended to by the best doctor that they had access to. He also recognized when the ship cloaked as all his systems lost a fraction of their power to the Cloaking device. After a brief order to the computer to override the power drain, he also discovered that almost all the other Emergency Holograms were active and on the bridge.

Moments earlier the Defiant had of course launched its photon torpedo at their fleeing target and watched it impact the dense armor and detonate spectacularly. Xander had immediately flown into the mangled wreckage in search of life, or at least the corpse of the person at the controls. Finding nobody in the forward compartment, Xander began searching what was left of the rear compartment, and after lifting a large chunk of armor from the body, he uncovered the still living but unconscious person in the suit of armor.

"Xander to Giles, I managed to obtain a prisoner. Please beam us to the Brig and then beam all this wreckage into a cargo hold."

"A-alright Xander, one moment please."

It didn't take long for Giles to pass the order on to the Engineering hologram that actually performed the tasks.

Once Xander and the Terminator appeared in the Brig, Xander used his telemechanics powers to remove the suit of armor from the person inside, discovering that it was a rather attractive woman. Xander stripped her to the skin to make sure that she wasn't carrying anything that could be used to get out of the brig before placing her inside the cell and activating the force field. He then went to the nearest replicator and had it produce a light grey jumpsuit and undergarments for the woman. Xander deactivated the force field only long enough to place the pile of clothing inside before heading towards sickbay.

As he arrived, he noticed Joyce and Buffy running into his destination, so he sped his own pace. Upon entering, he discovered a young lady with brown hair lying on a bio-bed with most of her shoulder missing, and the two elder Summers women being very loud and pushy and Willow teleporting in. Given the pushiness being displayed by Joyce and Buffy, Xander could only assume that it was Dawn who was the Bio-Bed's occupant.

The Doctor called "Assistant." When Jana went over to see what he needed, he continued. "If I am to finish attempting to save this woman's life, I need these people out of here. I would suggest placing them in the mess hall so that we know where to contact them once the situation changes." He knew he was being more than a touch melodramatic, but he needed to get these people's attention and leave his sickbay so he could continue to work.

Xander immediately began leading Joyce and Buffy out the door, explaining that they were making it difficult for the doctor to do his job, which was to save Dawn's life. They of course wanted to stay so that they could know instantly if and when things changed.

Xander realized that something needed to be done, as neither would go willingly without spending quite a bit of time trying to convince them, time which Dawn may not have as far as he knew. Xander also knew that he needed to do something subtle and quick, as he didn't want to fight them over this. He quickly sent a telepathic message to Willow, _I need you to cast a sleep spell on Joyce and Buffy so we can get them out of the Doc's way so he can save Dawn._

Willow looked at him and returned, _are you sure you know what you're doing?_

_Easiest option at the moment, and I can apologize to them later. Maybe they might even allow me to explain why I gave the order._

Willow nodded and cast her spells upon the two distraught women who rapidly fell asleep, only to be caught by Xander and his telekinesis. Xander floated them out the door and towards the mess hall. "Thanks Willow, Can you stay with them, I still have more work to do because of this incident."

"Sure Xander."

Once Xander had the three women comfortable in the Ship's Mess, he made his way to the bridge.

"Giles, how's things?"

"As, um, as I understand things, Dawn is in Critical condition in Sickbay. Y-you have a prisoner in the Brig, and the remains of that armored vehicle in cargo bay two. We are again in Geo-Stationary orbit above Sunnydale, and running cloaked. I believe everyone is onboard except for Miss Chase and Angel."

"Good enough for now. Just so you know, I have Joyce and Buffy under a sleep spell in the mess hall on deck three. They were giving the Doc a hard time." At his nod, Xander turned to the three holograms on the bridge. "Communications please hail the Enterprise."

Engineering, who was also handling the com-system, answered "Channel Open sir."

"On screen please." Xander was met with the image of Data sitting in the Captain's Chair, in his impeccable uniform as always.

"What can I do for you Admiral?"

"I need the Enterprise in Earth orbit. We have some alien artifacts that need confiscating. I knew that they could be dangerous, I just hadn't realized how dangerous until now."

"The Enterprise will be there in five minutes Admiral."

"Thank you Data." Xander said with a feeling of true gratitude. Something that wasn't lost on Data. Apparently whatever was bothering the human, he was relieved to be able to delegate this little bit of authority. "Contact me again when you get here, I'll have more information for you then. Defiant Out."

"Engineering, in Crew Quarters 3-42B you will find a piece of alien technology that is approximately the same size as a telephone booth. I need you to be able to determine what to scan the Earth for in order to retrieve as many of them as we can find, or more accurately, what the Enterprise can find."

The engineering hologram said "Aye Sir," and grabbed a tricorder before heading off to the room in question, knowing that he had less than 5 minutes to solve that question for the Admiral.

"Giles, go with him please in case he needs help operating the MAU."

Giles nodded and followed the Hologram to deck three.

After five minutes, Xander heard, "Giles to Xander."

"Go ahead Giles."

"We have found a very unique power signature that is present in an active MAU, but not in its storage mode. We'll be able to grab any active MAUs, but we are still working on a way to scan for MAUs in storage mode. The Engineering Hologram believes that it may take us a while longer to figure out a signature for the scanners to look for."

"Good enough for a start, thanks."

The commander spoke up at this point, "Admiral, the Enterprise has just entered orbit, and is hailing us."

"On Screen. Thanks for your help Data. So far all we've got is a power signature for active MAUs."

Xander, still thinking about how not to totally screw everything up at this point, but still achieve his objective of getting the MAUs off the planet, paused briefly before continuing, "What I need you to do is scan Earth for the signature my ECH is sending you now. Every time you locate it, transport the MAU to a cargo bay, and transport its potential users into a secured cargo bay. We'll interview them one at a time and restore them as necessary. Anyone likely to abuse their powers and abilities already gained will have them stripped. Be prepared to subdue and separate troublemakers. I may even try to recruit those who cooperate."


	8. Thursday II

_Thursday, NID HQ, Morning Briefing_

A Middle aged man in a dark business suit walked to the front of a small room, full of men and women who are all dressed similar to himself. He lays a manila folder upon the podium that awaits him every morning. "Good Morning Agents."

The agents dutifully respond, "Good Morning, Director."

"I am going to get right to today's briefing, as we have a lot to do.

"General Hammond's command out of Area 52 has been given primary tasking for any and all issues regarding the Starfall devices." There was a wave of groans at this announcement as everyone believed that they were now being cut out of yet another important assignment by the famous SGC. "We are still authorized to conduct Research and Field Collections, so essentially nothing has changed. It is apparent that the President has intended us to handle the average encounters with these devices, while General Hammond's people put out the brush fires from people getting nasty with the devices. Our orders are to maintain first contact with the users, and forward appropriate cases to the SGC for them to deal with. I doubt that I have to say that I don't like giving up control of the more interesting cases to the SGC, so make sure it doesn't happen.

"We still do not have a working device. E and Q returned from Minnesota last night with their users. The users are currently stuck as 18" tall pixies, and choose relocation to our dormitory due to how difficult it has been for them to continue to function in their society. By the time E and Q arrived, the device had already shut down of course, and they have retrieved the non-functioning device. This device, as with the three others that we have successfully recovered, has proven difficult to analyze. Neither X-Ray, MRI, nor Ultrasound penetrates so we are unable to examine the circuitry of the device to discover how it functions. Also, we still can't identify the element that the device's exterior is made of as it has resisted every sampling technique the laboratory people have tried.

"E and Q were able to capture several screens of an unknown text, and we have sent it to our best linguists to decode. They have so far informed us that it is not written in any currently used script, nor any of the common extinct scripts.

"R and U are still in Boston tracking down their users. Given the details that they are hearing, they do not hold out hope that they will be able to retrieve a working device either.

"C, P, W, G, and N, I want you to go to New York City. Buzz indicates that there may be several of the devices in the city that may still be active. The Senator has authorized this mission as "Any Means Necessary" as this thing is getting out of hand and we are having difficulty containing the information. Any more incidents like the next one, and we will loose containment.

"Your orders are:

"Retrieve the devices regardless of functionality.

"Secure statements from any and all users. If indicated, offer new identities or relocation to the dormitories as necessary.

"Use of force is authorized."

The five agents stood up and answered, "Yes Sir!"

The Director continued, "B and D, you are going to California. You are also authorized as "Any Means Necessary." If the SGC sends personnel to investigate this incident, you are to appear friendly and helpful to them at all times, however, you _will_ complete your mission objectives regardless of their presence. As always, if SG-1 is involved, use extreme caution in dealing with them.

"You will check out Heavy Weapons and body armor from Supply before heading to this 'Sunnydale' as the incident you are investigating tore up a bank, several buildings in the downtown area, and left a large crater on the freeway outside of town. Sunnydale International Airport, while far from large, is exceedingly well equipped, quite possibly the most advanced facility in the Southwest. They reported a very large object fall rapidly from great height that they believe to be de-orbiting, adjust its course and fly over the city before vanishing off their radar screens. Note that they didn't state that it returned to space or the upper atmosphere, nor that it went elsewhere very rapidly. It also did not descend below their ability to track it. The object simply was no longer there, similar perhaps to what happens when two planes collide in mid-air. However, NORAD Space Defense did track a large object exiting the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This may be the same vessel that also exited in a similar fashion this past Saturday. The eggheads at NORAD state emphatically that the vessel or vessels that have been leaving these signatures is far too small to be either the Star Destroyer or The Enterprise. Furthermore, those vessels have been under constant optical and radar tracking since we detected them."

The Director paused to take a drink from his coffee mug before continuing.

"Reports from eye-witnesses state that a person wearing what appeared to be a suit of 'futuristic high-tech version of medieval knightly armor' successfully robbed the bank but was confronted by several locals with super-powers, including a girl with a Lightsaber, and an honest to goodness Green Lantern. Now, at the very least, this second group sounds like they've got their hands on one of our devices if anything ever has. It also sounds like they may be very dangerous, so treat them with caution. There is a military base near the city, so you may want to consider using it and its resources.

"The bank robber may also be a user, however from the trail of robbed banks, he or she may have come from Oregon somewhere, and that portion of the assignment will fall to H and S. There is a homicide in the area which may be the point of origin for this rampage.

"Your orders are:

"Retrieve the Device regardless of functionality.

"Avoid antagonizing SGC personnel, but complete all other objectives regardless of cost.

"Secure statements from any and all users. If indicated, offer new identities or relocation to the dormitories as necessary.

"Confiscate any and all non-standard technology.

"Anyone possessing knowledge of their construction or advanced sciences is hereby drafted by Presidential Order 1374 Signed President Roosevelt, 8 December 1941.

"Use of All Necessary Force is Authorized."

Again, the agents in question stood and said "Yes, Sir!"

"Agents A and F are due back from Florida in two days, as they have not be able to secure any reasonable leads and are only tying up loose ends.

"Are there any questions?"

One agent towards the rear responded, "Sir, the Venezuela mission?"

"Scrubbed until further notice." There was a collection of groans at this. "I know. We need to take out that last cell, but Senator Kinsey wants this issue with these devices settled first. Until we do, all other issues are secondary, and that isn't something that I necessarily disagree with. If there's nothing else then?" and seeing no further questions, "Alright then, you're dismissed."

* * *

_Bridge, U.S.S. Defiant, Geo-Synchronous orbit over Sunnydale_

Xander sat in the captain's chair, having relieved Giles and ordering him to bed for at least two hours. The Doctor had called an hour ago to inform him that Dawn would be fine in a few days. He still needed to monitor her for infection and the like, but all indications were good for a speedy recovery.

Xander was also taking the time to review the information that Dawn had recovered from the SGC's mainframe about whom they were and how much trouble they normally got into. Generally good people, in a little over their heads, but not in all that great a need of help. They had after all handled everything that these Goa'uld had thrown at them so far.

The Stargate. An impressive bit of technology. And even more incredible to think that it actually worked and wasn't based off of something acquired from a MAU. The huge network of gates would make supporting a galaxy wide empire easy to maintain. If one planet has a bad harvest, most assuredly, another world would be having record growing seasons and stability would be maintained galaxy wide. It was yet another thing that would make defeating the Goa'uld a difficult prospect. On the other hand, if an infectious disease got out, it would be difficult to fight its spread.

The only down side would be if the Goa'uld came in ships, which they had apparently done a few months back. Still, it wouldn't do to be unprepared to receive any future visitors. He didn't want to acquire a reputation as a poor host. Given what little the SGC knew about the ships the Goa'uld used, mainly provided by this Teal'c, an apparent traitor to his deity and people, it was unclear what capability they actually had. Teal'c, being a warrior, not a technician, was unable to provide much data on the strength of the weapons, shields, armor, or other technologies, just what technologies the Goa'uld used and what it did from an observational standpoint, and frequently, from the victim's viewpoint. On the other hand, if the Goa'uld did control most of the galaxy, they had a whole lot of resources available. Resources translates into ships and material. That was a scary thought. A whole galaxy of combat vessels showing up at his front door. It didn't really matter if two or three ships couldn't harm The Enterprise, several thousand ships would eventually bring down any target. Not a good sign for his plans for that Humans Survive thing.

Big questions of the moment were, did he need to make contact with this SGC, or could they continue to handle things on their own for a while yet? What did he need to resist the Goa'uld when they eventually come to wipe out the Earth? World War II was won by the Allies because of industrial production rates. If nothing else had been in their favor, the Allies had out produced the Axis, and smashed the German capability to produce war material. This alone would have nearly guaranteed their eventual victory. The Gulf war wasn't won because of Industrial Capacity, but instead because of Technological Superiority.

Do we need industrial capacity when we have the MAU, or was the MAU itself a source of near infinite industrial capacity? It didn't matter how they got the ships at the moment, they didn't have the crew to man them. Data had reported that he had acquired over fifty potential MAU users, and only six had complained violently, one of which simply teleported back to Earth after making a spectacular mess. He had managed to take his MAU with him as well. Many of the users would need to use a MAU to be able to return to a normal life, and he had hopes that some of them would be willing to assist their group now that they had proof of alien existence. If they were capable of accepting Aliens, then he had hopes that they could also accept Demons and Vampires.

He'd had Data request that each user fill out a questionnaire that they could use to determine what each person could offer in terms of skill and experience, and what each would need or want in exchange, or what they would need to return to normal Earth society. It should also help them determine who to offer jobs to.

Xander let out a long sigh. Even if they got all fifty users to sign on, that wasn't even a skeleton crew for a ship like the Enterprise, let alone a Star Destroyer. Sure, droids could handle a good deal of the grunt work, but there were a lot of things that a true sentient were needed for. Droids were capable of making repairs, but not the more complex problems that frequent the Sci-Fi genre. It takes a sentient mind to figure out why something that should be working isn't doing so at the moment and make it do so anyway. Droids would also be poor combatants in the arenas that Xander was expecting. They would have done exceptionally well in the Napoleonic Conflicts, but not Korea or Vietnam. They may have done well in the recent Gulf War.

Ok, so how do I acquire large amounts of crew that I know can handle the truth that aliens and monsters are real and want to kill us?

Xander wondered if there was a technological solution and queried the Federation Database. Twenty minutes later the database kicked out a "No." Xander figured that with everything Dawn had acquired, her database might be more helpful, so he logged into it with the ID Dawn had given him earlier, and performed the same search, and almost immediately more helpful results came back. Star Wars had some cloning technology. This was certainly better than droids, but then again, worse as well. The Cylons had some interesting technology, but those lizard brains wouldn't be any better than an all droid crew, and quite possibly a good bit worse. It was possible, given the technology they had available, to make human-sized transformers, possibly along the same forms as the Maximals from The Beast Wars. Armitage III offered the possibility for Third Type Androids, which was certainly an interesting possibility. The perfect artificial human, can pass for human even under a medical examination, unless it decides otherwise. The most advanced models were capable of participating in human reproduction! Looks like Data is a little bit out of date. Then again, there was the cloning technology of the Zentrandi. They weren't perfect clones, each one made to be slightly different than all the others, so that facial features would be different enough to prevent confusion within any given fleet. The Zentrandi technology also allowed for rapid teaching of the near-clones. From start to finish, a Zentrandi Warrior could be ready to go in three weeks. Of course, the technology could also turn out technicians, scientists and doctors, all fully trained and ready to go.

Examining the technology in depth, Xander discovered that as long as he kept the Zentrandi cloning machinery on the appropriate settings, and maintained an even mix of males and females, there would be adequate genetic diversity to establish self-sustaining colonies without worrying about inbreeding becoming a problem. He also verified that if the clone chambers were made human sized, that they would still function as expected.

As far as Xander could tell, the only reason to not use the technology was that most Earth religions had made cloning to be the devil's work. As far as Xander was concerned, Cloning was Science, and therefore was inevitable. Genetic Modification to suit your own desires was a lot less hazardous than these MAUs, especially if the changes were made by knowledgeable people, such as those he would create with the Zentrandi cloning chambers.

Looking through all the material he had access to on the Zentrandi, Xander discovered the Zentrandi G95 Satellite Factory. This super massive factory had more mass than some of the asteroids in the asteroid belt. He read the numbers in the database, but the sheer size of the factory boggled the mind. The central factory hub itself was nearly 20 miles in diameter! Each factory pod was also at least 2 miles in diameter as well. And considering how heavily defended it was, it would take a fleet of Goa'uld cruisers to threaten it, and that was before he included all the various technological upgrades, like weapons, sensors, shields, power generation, and everything else from all the stuff they had access to. Needless to say, he'd use the MAU to make those changes.

With the G95 Satellite Factory upgraded, that would be a whole lot of Industrial Capacity. Hell, even without the upgrades, the G95 was a whole lot of Industrial Capacity. The question there was if it was enough Industrial Capacity. It certainly should be in conjunction with the large collection of MAUs he was having Data amass.

As far as technological superiority went, that was up in the air at the moment. Without knowing anything about Goa'uld vessels, there was no way to know how strong those vessels would be in combat. Well, the SGC's records weren't devoid of data on the vessels, there was a comparison of sorts, but it was worthless to Xander at this point. Teal'c had apparently not been privy to actual details, but did give up what he did know. One of Apophis's Ha'tak could take as many as 65 hits from another Ha'tak before his shields dropped. Apophis's own weapons could kill the shields of an enemy Ha'tak in as little as 35 hits. Gunnery was not computer controlled, it was controlled by the skills of individual Jaffa. Ha'tak were of course easy to hit, Alkesh were hittable, but difficult targets. Hitting a glider was all but impossible, and was nothing more than a lucky shot. Of course, a hit against a glider was an immediate kill. Speed and sensor range were about the only things that Teal'c could quantify. A Ha'tak at maximum speed could pull a little over one light year in a single day. That was about Warp 6. The only thing they had that wasn't faster than a Hatak were shuttles and runabouts. As to sensor range, they were barely capable of seeing the entirety of most star systems, which meant that they could see maybe two light years. That spoke well for the rest of the technology, but was hardly conclusive.

Xander decided that he would have to fix that soon. Possibly send an all droid crew after a soft Goa'uld target. He would never hear the end of it if he went himself, and he'd be damned if he sent anyone else. If he risked a bunch of droids on a recon combat mission, it was no great loss if they didn't come back. Should also send along a cloaked vessel incase the droid ship didn't come back, they would still get observational data as well as full telemetry. May not even need to risk the droid crew if the ship is piloted on remote control from the cloaked ship.

Another major item Xander decided they were missing was intelligence on the enemy. They knew very little about the Goa'uld forces. There really wasn't much chance at gathering intelligence at this point, but with a few smaller ships, like the Defiant Class, or even a real scout ship like the Saber class each with a cloaking device, should be able to remedy that situation.

Determination and Tactics were two other areas that affected both battles and wars. Which ever side was more determined to win, usually did. Using good tactics in combat would help one prevail against one's opponents. Fortunately, the Goa'uld didn't want Earth very badly at this point, based on the fact that they had attacked but once in the past four thousand or so years. Unfortunately, what tactics would be required of them were unknown at this point due to their general lack of knowledge of the Goa'uld.

The final area that Xander knew that they were lacking in, was Numerical Superiority. The Goa'uld had this at the moment, hands down, no argument about it. Fortunately, the G95 Satellite Factory and the MAU should help even that out fairly rapidly.

_

* * *

Cheyenne Mountain, SGC Command Briefing_

General Hammond entered the briefing room to inform his department heads of the additions to their duties. He sat the stack of folders he had carried in with him on the table in front of him, and began the meeting.

"Good morning everyone. Yesterday afternoon, in a small town in southern California called Sunnydale, a battle took place between two groups. One of which, seemed to be intent on robbing the local bank. The other group seemed to be a mixed group of individuals.

"The Bank Robbers destroyed a large chunk of the downtown area before escaping the area.

"The other group is said to have comprised of a Jedi, a Green Lantern, and several magic users. Several members of this group were armed with weapons from Star Trek.

"It is therefore the opinion of analysts that the second group has some connection to the starships that were discovered Tuesday morning. Further, it is their opinion that the ships themselves were acquired somehow from the Starfall devices.

"Shortly after that battle, the ship known as the U.S.S. Enterprise has moved into Earth orbit.

"The President has decided that a more military response is necessary to incidents like the one in Sunnydale, and in a closed session of congress, received approval to use the military in such situations.

"He then decided, that based upon our pre-existing mandate to explore the galaxy through the use of the Star Gates, that these Starfall devices fall within out scope of operations. The SGC, effective immediately, is responsible for responding to incidents such as the one in Sunnydale.

"The National Intelligence Division has been tasked with the research and standard collection duties. The President has ordered that they refer any and all hostile cases to this command.

"To that end, SG-1 and a detachment of Col. Makepeace's Marines will be leaving as soon as they are ready to do so. Your orders are to attempt to make peaceful contact with those that defended the town. A secondary objective is to place the bank robber under arrest if encountered. If you encounter other users, make contact as you believe appropriate, with preference being that peaceful contact be made by the NID. Questions?"

"No Sir." Jack and Col. Makepeace responded in unison.

"Then you are dismissed. Good Luck."

As the two senior field team leaders left the briefing room to prepare their teams, General Hammond walked down the circular stairway at the room's back end that led to the control room.

As he entered the control room, General Hammond ordered "Sergeant Harriman, use the satellite network to connect me with The Enterprise."

"Yes, Sir." It of course didn't take Walter long to establish a radio link through the satellite network to a satellite that was close to The Enterprise's orbit. "We have the satellite sir, any particular frequency or amplitude you wish to use?"

"Whatever you think best Sergeant. I leave the technical details in your capable hands."

"Yes Sir. You may transmit when ready General."

General Hammond picked up the microphone and keyed it. "This is General Hammond of the United States Air Force attempting to make contact with the Starship bearing the hull markings 'USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E.' Please respond this frequency and amplitude."

After thirty seconds of not receiving a reply, he transmitted his message again. Having not received a reply after a full minute, he ordered Sgt. Walter Harriman to change frequencies and boost the power slightly and retransmit his message.

Meanwhile, Data ordered the droids that were currently operating the bridge stations to continuing to scan the Earth, searching for active MAUs and transporting them to a cargo bay and connect him to Admiral Harris.

"What can I do for you Captain?" Xander asked with his normal grin.

"Sir, I have picked up a radio broadcast from a nearby satellite that clearly intends to initiate contact with the Enterprise."

"Do you have the point of origin for the transition?"

"Yes sir. It is coming from the Cheyenne Mountain complex."

"NORAD or the other one, um, the SGC?"

"I do not know sir." Data looked away from the main screen to listen to something before turning back to the screen and continuing, "Sir they have change frequency and boosted their power slightly. I believe this means that they are insistent on making contact."

"You are no doubt correct. Before I have you go ahead and patch me through to the satellite, play the message for me."

"Aye Sir." Data relayed the order to his crew and returned to Xander once the recording had played once, "Whenever you're ready Admiral."

"This is Fleet Admiral Harris to General Hammond, What can I do for you?"

A moment later, the General replied, "Greetings Fleet Admiral Harris and welcome to the Sol System. We have been tracking your progress through our star system since you arrived several days ago, and would appreciate it if you would state your intentions."

"You don't have to worry about us General, I was born in California, I only work in space."

"I see. I take it then that you have acquired your Starships from the alien devices that came to Earth in the meteor shower last week?"

"We did General. And for your information, they are called Morphic Adaptor Units, or MAUs. They were created by a race of beings called the Fwirthians who we have been thus far unable to contact, although, we are still making attempts to do so. They have seriously interfered with our little corner of the galaxy, irrevocably altering, well, just about everything really."

It took General Hammond a few moments to process all this information before he could respond, "What else can you tell us about these devices, or the Fwirthians?"

"Well, we really don't know all that much about the Fwirthians, other than what we've already said. We do not know where in the galaxy they're from, or even if they are from our galaxy. I can tell you that the ship that was transporting the MAUs that wound up on Earth was attacked by a fleet of starships, and through a series of happenstance, the vessel opened a wormhole, much like your own Stargate, and wound up in the Sol System. One of the shots ruptured their cargo bay and spilled a number of the containers into space. Some of those containers made their way to Earth.

"Now, as to the MAU, it is easier to say what it can not do than what it can. In short, it can not create life. It will not cause harm. It will not decrease Intellectual Capabilities, unless that's how you started out. It deactivates after four days. Other than those limitations, it is only limited by the imagination of the user."

"You said that the MAU can not create life, but that it will not cause harm. Can you clarify that for me?"

"The 'Will Not's are apart of the programming in the MAUs software, possibly for liability reasons. They are safeguards that prevent the MAU from accidentally unleashing a plague upon its users or other such disaster. They are dangerous enough as it is, and I for one am glad for the few restrictions that they do have. As with any programmed behaviors, they can be removed, but I will not be doing so, nor will I assist anyone else to do so."

"That is good to hear Admiral. Would you mind my asking how you know about our Stargate?"

"Not at all General. As an answer, have you ever watched the Star Trek series?"

"No, I haven't."

"I see, well, the technology that is present on the Star Trek series is vastly superior to our own computer technology. I could store all the data in your base's mainframe, including the dialing program, inside a hand held scanning device called a tricorder and still have plenty of room to spare.

"Yesterday, one of my people detected a wormhole. As standard procedure, they attempted to localize it to ensure that it would not be a hazard to navigation, or a danger to the ship itself. When they did, they discovered that the wormhole was not only not space-based, but also artificial in nature, and stable, if temporary. We did not have the opportunity to track the wormhole to its other terminus before it collapsed. Once we had located the one end on Earth, and inside a mountain at that, we investigated the area, especially as it was Cheyenne Mountain. NORAD was apparently doing something that the people didn't know about, and being the curious sort, we endeavored to discover what that was. With computer technology four hundred years more advanced than your own, do you really find it that difficult to believe that we were able to pierce your security?"

"You do realize that you could get into a lot of trouble for hacking into our computers?"

"I'm sorry General, but that doesn't follow. I have caused no damage, and in truth, you would not even know of my accessing your database had I not told you I had done so. I have not caused you any additional work, as it is not currently possible for any programming of your technology to prevent people with our kind of technology from accessing your systems. Besides, if you decide to charge us with any of the various computer crimes, we couldn't be friends, and then you'd miss out on all the things we can do for each other. That would not be in the best interests of the Earth. Also, please understand, that isn't a threat. I'm a Terran-Born Human, just like you. I have a loyalty to the people of this planet, no matter how ignorant they are of the various realities around them or our efforts to protect them."

"And just what can we do for you Admiral Harris?"

"Quite frankly, I need hard data on what these Goa'uld are capable of. Specifically, I need to know their weapons and shield capabilities. I need to know what star systems they control, where their major bases of operations are, where their ship yards and training centers are. In essence, I need to know what is necessary to fight a war against them, as they are a clear and present danger to the continued survival of the Earth. Well, more it's people than the planet itself.

"I could also use personnel. I have very little of that at the moment, and androids can only do so much."

"I see. What can you do for us Admiral?"

"Well, for one thing, I can actually protect this planet while you go exploring. I can provide ships and materials. I can provide technology. I can make it so that any time you engage the Goa'uld in ground combat, they regret it every single time. I have a wide range of technology at my disposal General. Some of which, can even be marketed to the public as it is essentially technology already in use, most of my technology however is far too advanced and could bring about an economic collapse if released to the open market.

"As a show of good faith, I would like to trade you a case of comm-badges for some time with Teal'c and one of his Staff Weapons. These comm-badges will work anywhere on the planet, and they can't be listened into, they can't be hacked, or traced by current technology. I will even offer you a communications relay, so that your comm-badges can be on a different network than our own. It would allow us to communicate with each other, but not listen into the other's conversations without their permission."

"I will ask Teal'c if he's willing, but you have my agreement."

"I suppose I should tell you that I have placed one person under arrest, and she is currently in my brig. She's the one that started all that mess in Sunnydale. While I'm glad that as few people were injured and killed as they were, a lot of people died as a result of this person's actions. One of my own people was injured as well. My doctor says she will make a full recovery, but it was a very near thing, even with all of my advanced technology. We will have to discuss at some point in the near future how to give her a fair trial, but I won't just hand her over right now, as we haven't interrogated her as to what all she did with the MAU."

"would you mind sharing with us a report of what happened there?"

"I can do that for you General." Xander reached over and programmed the computer to send the information to the SGC's computers. "You should have the report in your computer now, unless I screwed something up. I'm afraid computers were never my strong suit."

It took the general several minutes to confirm that they had in fact received the file, then informed Xander of that fact.

"Good then. Is there anything else I can do for you General?"

"Not right now Admiral. I'll contact you once Teal'c has made his decision."

"Thank you General, Harris out." Xander closed the communications channel and pondered the conversation that he had just had with the General.

It had improved the situation somewhat, but he had given out a lot more information than he had gained. Then again, Dawn had taken all their information already, so giving up as much as he had, while still keeping a few secrets, was hardly a fair exchange. He felt kinda bad that he hadn't shared that he still had a working MAU, but that was an ace-in-the-hole that he didn't want to give up just yet.

Speaking of which, he still needed to get that G95 factory satellite deployed and put to use. Xander set course for the Kuiper belt at warp 3 and The Defiant rapidly went on its way.

"Commander, you have the bridge, I'll be in my quarters. Please let me know if we arrive before I return."

"Yes Admiral." The hologram replied.

Ten minutes later, Xander returned to the bridge with a brand new capsule in hand.

"Admiral On Deck," the commander called.

"As you were. I have the Bridge. What is our ETA to the Kuiper belt?"

"Yes Sir. We are two minutes from the Kuiper belt sir."

"Good, I want you to start scanning for an appropriate location for a Factory Starbase of very large proportions."

"Yes sir. Um, how large sir?"

"Consider it to have a fifty mile radius clearance requirement with the mass of an asteroid of approximately half that size."

"Yes sir." Of course, it wouldn't take the hologram long to calculate an appropriate position, and, as expected, he quickly said, "I have many locations that will suffice, none have any significant advantages or disadvantages. All have mineralogical resources in plentiful supply near by."

"Very well, I need the coordinates to the nearest one."

"Yes sir. Zero-two-seven by three-four-zero, two hundred thousand kilometers."

"Bring us to within transporter range of those coordinates."

"Yes Sir."

Moments later a brand new Satellite Factory was floating near the outer edge of the Sol System. Xander ordered the Commander to dock the ship with the satellite near the administration section.

Xander stepped onto the station from the airlock and spoke, "Computer, Identify Harris, Alexander LaVelle, Fleet Admiral. As of now, I am assuming command of this vessel."

And again, the computer responded with the predictable, "Identity Acknowledged. Fleet Admiral Harris has command."

"Initiate synchronization with Utopia Planetia in Mars orbit."

"Synchronization initiating."

"Please show me the way to the commanding officers office. I'd like to put you to work."

Within ten minutes, Xander was sitting at the C.O.'s desk, punching in design specifications, calling up design schematics and modifying them to include the best mix of technologies he could come up with.

First, Xander started with small craft such as starfighters and shuttles. As a light starfighter, good for an all purpose interceptor, he wanted something highly maneuverable and able to soak a lot of damage. The two most maneuverable designs he knew of were the Starfury and the Tie Defender. While both designs appeared to be relatively flimsy in nature, they were both amongst the most deadly in their respective origin universes. Pitting the two designs head to head, the Tie Defender would clearly be victorious, however that would have little bearing once the two ships had been upgraded with various technologies from other universes. Xander eventually chose the Tie Defender to base the design off of, and began upgrading the technologies, from Star Trek, he used impulse drive, warp drive, pulse phasers, shields, and from the Vorlons he used the Adaptive Armor. While he knew he wanted powerful sensors in every spacecraft, the sensor suite in the Tie Defender would be simplistic in comparison to even that on a Federation Shuttle.

A second starfighter, more of a multi-role fighter, both heavier and more flexible, would be based upon the VF-19 Space Superiority Variable Fighter. To this, similar technologies as were added to the Tie Defender were added, shields, impulse and warp drives, inertial dampeners, and he replaced the Heavy Rail Gun Pod with a scaled up version of a Federation Pulse Phaser Rifle, as seen in the latest movies, the head mounted lasers with Type IV Phaser banks, and the mini-missiles with micro-photon torpedoes. The VF-19 would also include the same sensor suite as the Tie Defender.

After looking through the collection of various shuttles from the different universes, there really weren't many that he liked well enough to modify. Xander decided to make a few designs of his own. He decided on a broad spectrum of capabilities, all of which would be modular like the Danube class runabout from DS-9, and would range from five to thirty meters. Xander designed them to look like the Type 6 shuttles from Star Trek. They were armed with all the same technologies as the starfighters, but had the vastly improved Federation sensor suites.

Next, Xander began to work on larger ships. Mostly, he just re-fit existing Star Trek designs to include the maximum fire power possible, taking the Type XII phasers and the quantum torpedoes from the Sovereign Class, and pretty much all the other advanced Federation technology, and armored the hulls with Vorlon Adaptive Armor, included additional turrets specifically for point defense, and enlarged capacity shuttle bays to accommodate starfighters. After a moments thought, he added Ion Cannons to the various designs.

Of the designs given this treatment, Xander picked four frigates, the Oberth as a science frigate, the New Orleans as a cargo frigate, the Miranda as a diplomatic frigate, and the Olympic as a medical frigate. He also chose four cruisers, the Constellation, Excelsior, Prometheus, and Akira as light, medium, heavy, and attack cruisers. He used the Sovereign and Intrepid as heavy and light explorer ships, the Defiant as an escort, and the Saber as a scout. Finally, Xander gave that same basic treatment to Super Dimensional Fortress Megaroad, mainly on account of it being forty percent larger than the SDF Macross. The Megaroad class would be the flagships of the various fleets.

Designing and redesigning the various starships, starfighters and shuttles took several hours, but once finished Xander gave a few thoughts towards ground combat. While most ships wouldn't have the internal volume to dedicate to ground forces, the Megaroad class Super Dimensional Fortress certainly did, and she could carry one thousand, four hundred and seventy two mecha. However, a large ship that was nearly dedicated to ground combat seemed like a wise idea, given that most of the Goa'uld forces were ground based, and there didn't seem to be any way of knowing what else may be out there. The Sydney class, basically a glorified cruise liner designed to sail the stars of the Star Trek Universe, would be able to carry a single platoon of up-rated Destroids after it was modified. While it was only 92 mecha organized into 16 squads of 5, with 3 support teams of 4, were vastly more combat capable than he expected any formation of enemy Jaffa even if they did have Glider support. Alkesh on the other hand, might be a problem.

With the SDF capable of supporting so many more troops, Xander considered the need for a larger infantry carrier, in case he ran into a target that actually could fight them on a roughly even basis. For this, his first thought was the Battlestar, but at only six hundred meters, it didn't have the internal volume to carry the massive numbers of mecha that he wanted. Xander was a bit disappointed as he had wanted to find a use for the ship, but he wouldn't be finding one for it right now. The large ships from Starship Troopers, might be a better idea, but they to seemed too small, little more than infantry carriers. Xander flipped through the computer database that detailed all the ships designs that Dawn had acquired from the MAU. Finally, coming to a Zentrandi design for a large, three thousand meter landing ship called the Quiltra Queleual. After it received the upgrade treatments he had given all the other ships, it would be very powerful in ship-to-ship combat, but it would carry an entire brigade of Destroids along with an air group only slightly smaller than that carried by the Megaroad, and since he really didn't feel like calling the class Quiltra Queleual all the time, as it was a bit of a mouthful, he decided to honor his long-time friend and call them the McNally class.

Xander was about to place the order to start the factory producing crew and ships to fight the Goa'uld and any other threats that they might encounter in the near future, when he received a call from the Defiant. "Admiral, Dawn has regained consciousness."

"Thank you Doctor, I'll be right there." Xander smiled in relief as he quickly placed the order for the ships, and an additional request to fill in the reserves of clone-sickles, and as he was running down the halls he asked the computer to even make some scientist types for a research and development department.

* * *

AN: Since I forgot to make note of it last time I made an update, I now have three betas, Kellie Dury, Dana Short, and Capt Nemo. Also, I set up a forum for my fic for anyone who wants to use it. In those forums, you'll find a list of the stats sheets I made for Xanders ships. 


	9. Friday II

_Friday Morning, Sunnydale Motorlodge, Sunrise._

Half an hour after their morning run, Sam was sitting at the diner with the rest of SG1 with her laptop open in front of her. Her assistant, Crysta, at the SGC had forwarded to her a collection of IP Addresses to servers that housed most of the city's databases, as well as their logons and passwords. She was almost certain that the network administrators for those systems were unaware of those particular accounts, given the nature of the names, such as "plokta," "theanykey," and her favorite "id10t." Sam had already finished most of her breakfast, and was just nibbling on her muffin with her coffee while Jack and Teal'c were on their second helpings.

"General Hammond had Crysta send me the police report on the bank robbery. There isn't much here, other than a list of suspects. The primary suspects at the moment are a group of high school students, and the other primary suspects, gang members on PCP, seem to have been eliminated because it was daylight. From what Admiral Harris put in his report, which was a lot more complete and thorough by the way, the police are calling them the primary suspects, and ignoring the reports about the person in armor actually being the one to rob the bank."

"What I want to know is how you rate an assistant?"

"Well sir, Daniel and I both rate assistants because we are geeks."

"I see."

"And we filled out the paperwork."

Daniel chuckled quietly before getting kicked under the table, "Ow. Was that really necessary Jack?"

"What?" was his only reply.

"Anyway, sir, you could likely get an entire staff of your own, if you just filled out the paperwork. I mean, you are a Colonel and second in command of the SGC," Sam continued.

"Yeah, but I don't know that I'd really want a whole office full of Walters running around."

"Walter is very efficient, and you might always get lucky and get someone like Crysta instead."

"She is a cute little thing, isn't she?" Jack looked over at Sam before asking, "So tell me, every time you see her, do you have the urge to give her a pat on the head and a cookie?"

"Um, no sir, and I wouldn't recommend it. I know she can kick my butt, and I'm fairly certain that she could take Teal'c."

"No way. Never happen."

"Sir, you do know that she teaches Kung Fu?"

"That little girl knows kung fu? She's what, four foot ten and eighty five pounds soaking wet?"

"She told me when she first arrived that she's been studying Kung Fu since she was four, so going on twenty years now. She is also getting ready to take her First Dan rating in Aikido, so yes, I think she could take the four of us. The only reason she didn't qualify for Off World missions is because she just can't pass her marksmanship tests. Put anything that could even pretend to be medieval in her hands and she'll go to town on you, but she just can't shoot straight. She did pass the armory qualification, and she beat my field-striping and reassembly time."

"She's really that good?" Sam nodded. "Damn. Guess that'll teach me not to judge a book by its cover." Jack seemed to think about it for a few moments, "Ok, Daniel and I are going to walk around town, see what there is to see around here. Sam you play with your computer some more, see if you can't find out more about our friendly neighborhood Fleet Admiral. Teal'c, watch her back. I don't know why, but this town gives me the creeps."

As Jack and Daniel walked out of the motel room, Daniel asked, "So Jack, how's the shoulder holding up?"

"Good, little annoying this morning, but it works again, thanks to the doc."

* * *

_Other side of town_

"Well, that's the last of the witnesses from the police reports, all we have left are the suspects."

"Gangs on PCP aren't exactly easily identified, and if they were, I don't know that they would be much use. Other than them, we just have a few High School students and the school's Librarian. According to the school's schedule, he should be arriving shortly, and then we could probably catch the kids before class. It's not like we've never had an under aged user before."

"We did a pretty good sweep of the town yesterday, and I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't see any indications of gang activity. The city itself is nothing like LA. There are no cultural factors that would lead to gang activity, no widespread poverty, very few areas of decreased property value and the few that are there are industrial."

"It is an interesting contradiction, but not one that we need to worry about at the moment. What I want to know is can I shoot Zed when we get back? He picked 'Ben Dover' as my cover name this time."

B chuckled. "No you can't shoot the boss, although, I've been the butt of his humor myself. Everyone has, so it's a bit like a rite of initiation. You're one of us now, and this is his way of saying 'ok, maybe you aren't as worthless as I thought' as it were. Heaven forbid he ever actually says anything nice about anyone."

"Fine, take all my fun out of it. Then I guess we had better go see what we can dig up about those kids."

* * *

_Sunnydale High School Library_

"I mean, like, some of them. Like parts." Angel corrected Giles.

Of course, this lead Cordelia to complain, "It was horrible. Angel saved me from an arm. God, there were so many parts, they were everywhere. Why are these terrible things always happening to me?"

Giles continued to ignore her whining, "So much for all our theories. Why go to all the trouble to dig up three girls only to chop them up and throw them away? It doesn't make any sense."

"Well, what I saw didn't add up to three whole girls. I think they kept some parts." Angel offered, hoping it would help. "And this was no hatchet job. Whoever made those incisions really knew what they were doing, like they had practice doing it."

"I see. Well, I don't see what else we can do right at the moment. We will of course continue to investigate, however, Xander asked that I give you each one of these, and should you see Amy, that you send her to see either Buffy or myself." Giles removed from his desk two com-badges and handed one to Angel and the other to Cordelia.

"A bit simple for jewelry," Cordelia complained before picking it up. "Too heavy to be plated, Giles, how did the Geek afford real gold? And is this platinum? Why the hell is he giving me real jewelry?"

"And I don't know what you've been telling that boy Giles, but I don't swing that way. How did he managed to get his hands on what appears to be rather expensive jewelry though?"

Giles gave a brief sigh at the comments made by the two, "Yes, Cordelia, that is made from Gold and Platinum. And I have one as well." Giles took a moment to pull his from his pocket, briefly showing it off, before replacing it. "It is not however, jewelry. It is a communications device, and once the sun has gone down tonight, and Cordelia has finished her responsibilities towards the school for the football game, we would like to fill the two of you in on a number of changes that have occurred since last Thursday. A good deal has happened since we have last seen you two, and they are things you need to know about. However, it will have to wait until later, I will be meeting someone from the government this morning, and think it best if you weren't here when they arrived. They appeared to be government agents when we spoke on the phone. They claimed to be investigating the bank robbery on Wednesday."

Angel nodded, "Alright, I'll meet you here after the game."

Cordelia, once more centered upon herself, said "You know, I think I've got some earrings at home that could go with this."

Giles once more released a sigh, "To use the communications features of the, um, of the com-badge I believe it's called, you simply tap it and speak the name of the person you wish to talk to. Xander, Willow, Mrs. Calendar, myself, Buffy, Dawn, Mrs. Summers, and now you two, all have these devices, and they can be used to talk to any of us or to summon assistance, should you need it. Yes, Mrs. Summers has been introduced to the darkness, and has resources that may be helpful, that we did not previously know about."

Angel nodded and stashed it in his inside jacket pocket before leaving through the sewers.

Cordelia however, was barely paying any attention to them and as Angel left, she left through the front door.

* * *

Agents B and D entered the library shortly after Cordelia had left.

"Dr. Giles?"

Coming from his office, he replied "Yes?"

"I'm Agent Barker, and this is Agent Dover. As we stated over the phone, we are investigating Wednesday's bank robbery."

"Yes, of course. May I see your identification please?" he asked politely.

After examining the offered documents and handing them back, "Well, as I said on the phone, I'm not sure how much help I can be for you. I was nowhere near the event, and not a witness."

Agent Dover countered, "Yes, we are aware of that, however, what we wish to know is the current location of several persons who were spotted in the vicinity, namely 'Alexander Harris,' 'Buffy Summers,' and 'Willow Rosenberg.' Each is listed in the police report as possible suspects, and by reviewing their police files, it was discovered that you are apparently a good friend of theirs, and thus should know of their whereabouts."

Giles took a moment to examine the two men, and made a decision. "While I may have some ideas as to where they may currently be, I am not currently at liberty to divulge that information to you. You may well be government agents, but I do not know what your security clearance might be, nor have I been informed that I have permission to speak to you about those children. Children who fall under the British Official Secrets Act, and with the permission of your State Department, any and all information about them, beyond what is already in their police reports, is classified. That is all I have to say on the subject.

"Was there anything else you wished to discuss?"

Agent Baker took the hint that he had stumbled upon something above his pay grade, but decided to try a different tactic. "What do you know about the meteor shower last week?"

"Quite a bit, and very little. What do you wish to know?"

"Please sir, start with the basics, and we can go from there?"

"Very well. As far as other astronomers have been able to determine, the rogue shower came from the direction of the Pleiades, and as such, not entirely unusual. The likely cause for the shower is several large collisions in the main asteroid belt. Given the size of the objects when they entered the atmosphere, the subsequent detonations into smaller fragments, it is unlikely that many, if any, fragments survived to impact. The most likely composition of the shower, given previous showers from that vicinity, was mostly rock and minerals. Ice is a possibility, but far less likely."

Agent Dover interrupted at this point, recognizing that the report was nothing more than educated guesses, "So you believe that it was a completely natural phenomenon?"

"I have no data to suggest otherwise. The only slightly unusual aspect of the shower was that nobody knew it was going to happen ahead of time, and that it came from a rather highly observed portion of the sky. Someone should have seen these asteroids coming, but apparently nobody did. It is unusual, but not unheard of, we get one or two of these a year. Unfortunately, as the most advanced telescope I have access to at the moment is a 254mm f/5 Schmidt-Newtonian on an equatorial mount, I was unable to see much of the shower itself. I was able to see a few nice fireballs however."

"I see. Just how does an astronomer and linguist wind up caring for the library of a high school in a foreign country?"

"Why, in the usual way, I'm sure. One answers the call of their Queen." Giles looked rather annoyed at the question, and its implications, and continued, "Now gentlemen, as you have mentioned, I do have a Library to look after, so if you would show yourselves out."

* * *

_Defiant, Sickbay_

Dawn was starting to become annoyed. The doctor wouldn't let her off the bio-bed.

"You are still recovering from your injury. You're not leaving my sickbay." He stated again.

"And I'm done telling you that once I leave, I'll be done recovering. If you do not remove yourself from my path, I'll deactivate you. I have alternate means of accelerating my recovery and I intend to use them."

"And I don't know what these means are, so I will not allow one of my patients to expose themselves to unknown technology, especially when they are already injured."

"It's not unknown, and it made you." Dawn attempted to get up again, but there was a force field restraining her. "Doctor. Remove this force field immediately. I have the right to refuse any further treatment, and I am doing so. Release me."

"I am sorry that I can't do that at this time. You are clearly too emotionally distraught from this incident to be making reasoned decisions, as evidenced by your desire to put yourself at further risk for injury before you've even partially recovered, and I can not in good conscience allow my patient to do that. Therefore you will remain here, under observation and in restraints until I decide that you are no longer a danger to yourself or others. Please do not make me sedate you."

"Enough. Computer, Deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram."

"Now wait just a da…" he managed to get out before he fully shut down.

"Computer, release bio-bed force field."

The computer responded, "Unable to comply. Bio-bed controls are not part of the voice control interface for security purposes."

Dawn sighed in frustration before taking a deep calming breath and entered a brief meditation to center her emotions. Once more calm and in control, she embraced the force and used it to manipulate the controls for the bio-bed, deactivating the restraining force fields, and releasing herself.

Dawn then made her escape from the sickbay, and headed for, well damn. She didn't know where the MAU was at the moment. Walking to a com-panel, she activated it. "Dawn to Xander, where is the MAU right now?"

"Main Engineering, the Engineering and Command Holograms are still searching for a way to scan for deactivated MAUs. What's up?"

"I am. I am not sitting around sickbay for two weeks recuperating, when I can use the MAU and be fully healed inside ten minutes. I was too tired last night to think of this with everyone crowding me."

"Dawn, where are you? I'll come help you down to Engineering so you actually make it there, ok?"

"Sure, I'd appreciate that. I'm just outside Sickbay."

"Ok, see you in a minute. Xander out."

As soon as the channel was closed, Dawn mumbled "I am definitely adding some healing after this…"

* * *

_Sunnydale Memorial Hospital_

Ms. Howe entered the hospital room where Bob was recovering from surgery to put his arm back together. She checked the boy's chart before speaking to him. "Broken Ulna, fractured Radius, dislocated Radius, dislocated trapezium, compound fracture of the Humerus, dislocated Humerus, dislocated and broken clavicle. My, my Mr. Wiley, when you get the crap beat out of you, you certainly don't mess around.

"I should inform you that I am recording our conversation, in order to protect us both from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous persons.

"My name is Ms. Howe, I am an attorney. I am here to interview you. I have already spoken with Mr. Blaisdell, and have his statement. He was most cooperative. I hope that you will also choose to be cooperative." Sitting down, she pulled a laptop from her bag, and opened it. "I would like to help resolve this situation Mr. Wiley, but to do so, I'm going to need your assistance. I already know everything that happened, so what I need from you is your perspective on the events. I know that you've broken several laws, and this was confirmed by Mr. Blaisdell, so the only thing that you can do by denying the events, is make my job, my job being to help, more difficult. You don't want to make my job more difficult, do you Mr. Wiley?"

Bob, being the future brain surgeon that he was, replied rather dully with a polite, "No ma'am."

"No, I didn't think so. Now, I want you to tell me what happened, in your own words. Let's start with where you were when Mr. Blaisdell approached you?"

"Uh, I picked him up at his house cause his da wouldn't let 'em drive on the pain killers 'e was taking, on accounta his busted hand. 'E told me dat we was gonna get some payback, maybe have a little fun with 'is girl, dunno her name really, just that she's a redhead. Never noticed her before, but she's got a nice bod.

"Uh, lesse, we was lookin fer her round the school 'fore homeroom, and saw her leave da basement, by th' time we got near her, she was too far away to drag back, so we waited till she was alone, den dragged her inna storage closet. Bitch bit me onna hand, er, sorry miss, um, well, like I says, she bit my hand, and I popped her a goodun inna face. She fell over, and Larry yelled at me some, then told her how it was gonna be, how she was gonna sex us good or we'd beat her some more."

Ms. Howe interrupted Bob, "You told her that you intended to have sex with her, by force if necessary?"

"Yes ma'am. Dunno what happened den really. Alla sudden she was standin again, and she was scary too. Never been 'fraida much, coach says it's what makes me such a good wrestler; guess I may not be doin that no more. Doc says it'll be about a year before I'm cleared fer sports again."

"That's a shame. I understand you were quite good. You were saying how Miss Rosenberg scared you? Was it something she said, or did?"

"Well, like I said, not too sure what it was, just that I was scared of her, too scared really to think, till she moved, and when she did, she moved real fas', and kicked Larry inna nutz, then busted 'im inna chops. I made a grab fer her, ta get 'er offa him, an dat's when she hurt my hand. Den she broke my arm a whole bunch and when she left, she tol me ta get Larry to da Nurse, den call a lawyer cause she was gonna call da cops. I know she muttered somethin as she left, but I couldn make it out. I woke Larry up an we gots are selves to da Nurse, like she said.

"We tol da Nurse we was inna fight, but coach tol us lotsa times not ta give details, so we didn't. Nurse noticed my arm was bleedin, and musta figured I needed da hospital, cause she called the ambulance.

"I been here since, and dey been takin good care a me.

"I s'pose I should say dat Snyder came by da next day, find out if da cops had been by, if I'd talked to anyone 'bout what happen. Tol him 'course not, I listen to da coach. Snyder tol me da he'd suspended da girl, and expected to be able to expel her fer what she done. Tol me that he'd have someone come git a statement from me. Um guessin dat's you doin it."

"Alright. I think I've got enough to work with for now. I'll have my assistant make a transcription of this interview, so if you would sign this document for me, I'll let you get back to recovering."

"Whasit say?"

"Basically, the document states that everything you've said to me, that was recorded for transcription, was the truth to the best of your knowledge."

Bob nods and signs the form.

Picking up the form and putting all her things away, she stopped as she was leaving the room. "I'd like to thank you Mr. Wiley. I'm sure that Miss Rosenberg will thank you for your honesty as well. You've certainly made my proving her case a lot easier."

"Wait, I thought you said you worked fer Snyder?"

"No, you said I worked for Snyder. I only stated I was an attorney. It is not my duty to educate you as to the great many things you do not know. It is my duty however to do the best job for my clients I am capable of. Educating you would have been contrary to providing the best legal services to my client.

"I do believe that I'll be seeing you in court Mr. Wiley."

Bob really didn't know what to say to that, and as the pain was starting to get through the drugs again, he pushed the button for another dose of painkillers. Shortly thereafter he was asleep again.

Ms. Howe however, was smiling quite widely as she walked into Mr. Blaisdell's room and repeated the performance, again walking out with what was tantamount to a signed confession from both boys.

* * *

_Law Office of Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe_

Xander, dressed in what Cordelia might have called 'casual business' style, walked into Willow's lawyer's office. Stopping at the receptionist's desk, "My name is Xander Harris, I am told that Ms. Howe wanted to speak with me?"

The receptionist replied, "I'm afraid she's not in the office at the moment, however, she is due back presently. If you'd like, I can schedule an appointment, or you can have a seat."

"I can wait a little while." Xander then took a seat to wait.

Ten minutes later a grinning Ms. Howe walked into the office and picked up her messages from the receptionist, who also pointed to Xander who was waiting for her.

"Why don't you follow me back into my office Mr. Harris? And Anita, please have Daren see me immediately?"

Xander followed the lawyer to her office, where he asked. "By the size of that grin, I presume that you have good news?"

"Very good news, but you'll have to get that from Miss Rosenberg. I'll be calling her right after we are done here, so there shouldn't be much delay for you finding it out."

"Fair enough. Willow told me that you wanted to ask me some questions?"

"I'm looking for background information. The history between you and Willow, how Larry and Bob fit into things, what the problems with Vice Principal Snyder are and may be, that sort of thing."

"Alright. Well, I met Willow on the first day of kindergarten. We shared a box of crayons, and have been friends ever since. We even recently started dating fairly seriously."

Xander continued to tell the attorney of various encounters with Larry over the years since they had met in first grade. They were only interrupted briefly when Daren came in. Ms. Howe handed him the cassette tape from her recorder, told him to make three copies and get the original into the safe before making a transcript of the two conversations.

Xander explained how Larry tried very hard to be such a big shot. Bob was just one of Larry's many lackeys and was probably the only one that was convenient or he likely would have had at least one more person there to watch his back, probably two or three since his own hand had been broken Friday when he had hit Xander.

"Thank you Mr. Harris. Do you have a phone number I can reach you at should I have any additional questions?" Ms Howe asked.

"Sure." Xander scribbled down the number for the Mansion.

"In that case, I had better let you get out of here, so I can call your girlfriend and tell her about my morning."

"Thank you ma'am, and have a good afternoon."

Xander left the office, and drove back to the mansion. He was, oddly enough, needing to get ready for a double date with Dawn and Willow. They were going to the football game later, and he had yet to figure out who Dawn was going with so he would know how growly he needed to be with the other guy. Willow had refused to say when she had told him about it.

* * *

The two agents walked up to the Rosenberg home and rang the doorbell. After waiting a minute without response, they tried again, only to still receive no response. They left to see if they could find one of the other two.

Fifteen minutes later, Jack and Daniel repeated the exercise only to get the same results.

* * *

Agents B and D were starting to become annoyed. They could only find one of the students, and the short man known as Principal Snyder had informed them that she was in class at the moment, and he would not allow her to be disturbed. They would have to wait for her after school. However, Snyder had offered to summon the girl just before the dismissal bell.

Mr. Harris had withdrawn from school, and they had tried his house, only to find it too empty.

* * *

Jack and Daniel arrived at the address listed in Alexander Harris's School file. Ringing the doorbell, they were surprised to have it answered by a very hung over Anthony Harris. "Whatever you want, just keep it down."

"My name is Colonel Jack O'Neill, US Air Force. My associate is Dr. Daniel Jackson. We are looking for a Mr. Xander Harris. Could you direct us to him please?"

Tony winced at Jack's false quiet, "The boy? What's he done now?"

"He's done nothing that we are aware of. We are here to see if he might be interested in joining the Air Force, once he's done with High School of course. His grades are pretty good, and he came highly recommended to us. Is there something that we should be considering in regards to his recruitment?" Daniel asked, while not quite sympathetic to the man's plight, he wasn't one to cause pain to others needlessly, and was keeping it down.

"Boy's run away from home. We haven't seen him in a week. Around here, that means he's probably dead, or worse. Before that, he was always getting into trouble of one sort or another, you can ask, what's his name, the vice principal at his school all about that. If you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed." Before giving either member of SG-1 a chance to reply, he closed and locked the door.

Daniel commented, "With a father figure like that, I can see why he may well have left home."

Jack, deep in thought, nodded before commenting, "Since we can't find Harris or Rosenberg, let's try The Summers house this evening."

"In the mean time, there's a gallery in town with an Egyptian display we should examine. There are supposed to be several interesting pieces for sale."

Jack sighed as he let himself be dragged along on what promised to be another boring excursion for him to put up with. He was quite sure that he could find something more interesting to do with a few hours.

* * *

_Later that evening_

Xander and Willow meet Dawn at the front door of the Summer's home, and Xander tries his luck at getting an answer again, "So Dawn, who's the date?"

Willow answered for her, "Well, he just got here."

Xander turned around and didn't see anyone behind him, " Huh?"

"Well, I'm going with you, and you're going with Willow, and Willow's going with me, so we are all going together, and if anyone doesn't like that, too bad." Dawn stated rather emphatically.

Xander kept quiet on the subject and instead asked, "So, we ready to go then?"

"Phaser, lightsaber, tricorder, comm-badge, box of wooden toothpicks, Starfleet first aid kit, yeah, I think I'm good to go, Willow?" Dawn asked.

"I'm good. I've got most of the same, except for the first aid kit."

"Then, shall we ladies?" Xander held out his arms for the two women to take.

Each took an arm, and allowed themselves to be escorted to Xander's car.

With no further fuss, Xander and his two dates, his two very hot dates in his opinion, made their way to the football game.

Things were going well for the three. They had given Giles and Jana a small amount of grief, simply to let them know that the three teens still cared. They had purchased and consumed copious amounts of food and drink, and were very happily enjoying themselves when Buffy came over.

"Um, have you guys seen Cordelia?"

Willow asked, "Why, isn't she down there with the other cheerleaders?"

"I haven't seen her since just before Half Time. And apparently they even had to sub someone for her, cause she's supposed to be the apex of that Pyramid." Buffy pointed to the ten person pyramid down on the field that was just breaking up.

Xander asked "Did you see when she left, or where she was going?"

Buffy shook her head and replied, "One minute she was there on the sidelines, the next she was gone. Nobody seems to know where she went."

"Do you know if someone managed to give her a com-badge yet?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded, "Giles told me earlier that he managed to give her one."

Xander tapped his com-badge, "Xander to Cordelia, where are you?"

Cordelia responded immediately, "Xander? Help! I'm being kidnapped!"

"Where are you Cordy? We'll come get you."

"Hey! That's mine! Give it ba..."

Unfortunately, that was all that was heard as the signal was cut off.

Dawn pulled out her tricorder and began scanning for one or more life signs moving away from the game or in otherwise unused areas. "I have several possibles, most are not moving very much and are in small spaces, likely nothing more than heavy petting and serious kissing. Almost all of them are in pairs. I have one trio in the old science building."

"Nobody uses the science building. It's not structurally sound." Willow pointed out.

"Then that's likely where our assailants are headed." Xander turned to Buffy, "Will you fetch Giles and Ms. C, and meet us there?"

Buffy nodded and took off running towards the last place she knew they were.

Dawn grabbed onto Xander and said, "Let's fly!"

Willow nodded and floated up off the bleachers and rose a good distance above the crowd to wait for Xander and Dawn who were only moments behind. Xander took the lead as he was the one with the passenger, with willow keeping up.

It did not take long to reach the condemned building.

Xander asked, "Where to Dawn?" after they had set down not far from the building.

After consulting her tricorder briefly, "Second floor, north side. I'm reading lots of chemicals in the room they're in. Formaldehyde is the largest in quantity."

"Right then, phasers and blasters are out. Guns are out because Cordy's in there," Xander said as they entered the building. "Looks like its down to melee."

Willow offered, "I know a paralysis spell. It should incapacitate everyone in the room for twenty minutes or so."

Xander replied, "Go for it. Anything that'll make our lives easier is of the good."

The trio had just reached the second floor when the universe decided to complicate their lives further by having Data hail Xander. "Data to Fleet Admiral Harris."

Xander tapped his com-badge to respond, "Now is really not such a good time, Data. We're a little busy. Can this wait ten minutes?"

"I do not believe so. I have just picked up a very high energy hyperspace distortion on a direct course to Earth."

"Goa'uld?"

"I do not believe so. According to the information the SGC has, it is traveling several orders of magnitude faster than the Goa'uld are capable of achieving."

"All right, um, calculate their exit point, if possible, and try to get behind them when they come out of hyperspace. Challenge them, but make no hostile actions. If they aren't Goa'uld, get as detailed sensor scans as possible. The Defiant and I will join you as soon as possible."

"Yes Admiral, Data out."

"Ok Willow, let's do this as quickly as possible. Cast your paralysis spell, and let us know when it's safe for us to enter."

Willow nodded and cast her spell and four blue spheres flew from her hand and disappeared through the door. "There may be a vampire or a zombie in there, and it may or may not be affected by the spell, but we can enter at any time."

Xander and Dawn nodded. Xander Closed his hand and a glowing blue sword formed in his grip made from nothing but psychic energy. Dawn and Willow both pulled, but did not activate their Lightsabers. Xander opened the door and the three teens entered the room to see two boys lying on the floor, Cordelia lying on one of the tables, and a fourth person, wearing a SHS Letterman's Jacket, standing over one of the boys on the floor.

"Come on, you lazy excuse for a brother, get your ass up, Chris!" he said as he kicked the prone body none too gently. Then he noticed the new arrivals. "Ah, the second stringers. Forget to bring your Slayer?"

"I should hardly think we need a being as weak as the slayer to deal with the likes of a simple zombie. Now, step away from the humans, and we can do this the easy way. Fight, and we do it the hard way."

"You think you can stop me? In life I was unstoppable, and now I'm even stronger, even faster, even harder to put on the ground! You can't stop me!"

"Puleeze, I'm going to go through you like snot through a Kleenex."

At that, the zombie that used to be the High School's star quarterback, Daryl, charged, and leapt through the air over the interposing table at Xander, only to be met by the glowing edge of Xander's Psi-Sword as it sliced effortlessly through his necrotic flesh. Willow and Dawn activated their lightsabers the instant Daryl began his charge, and when the two halves landed at their feet, each girl took a few swipes with their lightsabers and finished dismembering the undead football player.

"Well, that was anti-climactic." Xander commented dryly. "Willow, can you bag him up? I want to get Cordelia to The Defiant, and these two jokers into the brig. Grab Giles and Miss C and come on up once you've got them all. I don't know that we'll still be in orbit, so you'll likely need to be careful with your teleport."

Willow agreed and quickly conjured a large canvas bag to carry Daryl in.

"Come on Dawn, I need you at the Helm. Xander to Defiant, five to beam directly to the bridge."

Moments later, only Willow was left in the room, and a moment later, the room was empty once more.

* * *

_Enterprise, Near Earth_

Data sat in the Captain's Chair, surrounded by a crew of droids, all of whom were re-programmed to operate as Starfleet crew. Data was satisfied with his crew's performance thus far. While it was true that he had had them only for a few days, nearly all their drill scores had been phenomenal. In fact, their only true failing was the one Admiral Harris had warned him of, and that was their near total lack of creative problem solving capabilities.

They had proven this during a simulated engineering crisis. The warp core had failed and the droids needed to devise a way to make it work again in the unusual simulated environment.

Their solution had been an iterative process of elimination and combination. They had taken six times the allotted time permitted by Starfleet, but they did eventually solve the problem. As a bonus, their process did identify several significant improvements that could be made. Unfortunately, as the improvements had not solved their problem, they were dismissed, and never brought up again, as a biological crewmember would have.

Data had considered the issue for several seconds and issued an order to the entire crew that any potential improvement discovered should be recorded and examined again later for possible implementation.

Data was pondering another similar drill when his science officer called for his attention, "Captain?"

"Yes, LA-214D?" Data was unsure of these designations. He would prefer that they had names, as he did, but if they were satisfied with designations, who was he to force names upon them? He had informed them that any droid who wanted a name, only had to choose one and inform him, and it would be used from then on.

"Sir, I have a hyperspace distortion on sensors, and it appears to be on a direct course to Earth."

"Estimated time to arrival?"

"Between four and six minutes, sir."

"Thank you. Please plot its course as accurately as possible, and likely exit points."

"Aye, Sir, plotting course and exit points."

Data then called up the sensor data to his own terminal, before he tapped his com-badge, "Data to Fleet Admiral Harris."

Xander responded, "Now is really not such a good time, Data. We're a little busy. Can this wait ten minutes?"

"I do not believe so. I have just picked up a very high energy hyperspace distortion on a direct course to Earth."

"Goa'uld?"

"I do not believe so. According to the information the SGC has, it is traveling several orders of magnitude faster than the Goa'uld are capable of achieving."

"All right, um, calculate their exit point, if possible, and try to get behind them when they come out of hyperspace. Challenge them, but make no hostile actions. If they aren't Goa'uld, get as detailed sensor scans as possible. The Defiant and I will join you as soon as possible."

"Yes Admiral, Data out."

Data considered the order, and while he would of course obey it, he didn't necessarily agree with it. It showed a lack of understanding of starship combat tactics. While Starships did have 'Fronts' and 'Backs,' a Starship could see in all directions, three hundred and sixty degrees by three hundred and sixty degrees. There would be little tactical advantage, and several disadvantages in appearing behind a potential adversary, while they would have a clear run on their target, the Earth itself.

He hoped that The Admiral had a reason for the strategy that was not yet apparent to him.

"LA-214D, do you have exit coordinates yet?"

"Yes, sir. I have two hundred thirty one distinct exit probabilities."

"Feed the highest probability to Navigation."

"Aye sir, sending highest probability coordinates to Navigation."

"ND-17K, do you have those coordinates?"

"Yes sir."

"Set course for one hundred thousand kilometers on the opposite side to those coordinates, then spin to face the coordinates listed. Engage when ready."

"Aye sir, engaging course for one hundred thousand kilometers the far side of the Science Officer's coordinates and coming about, ETA, thirty seconds."

Data knew that it was tradition, but unnecessary with an all droid crew. Droids didn't get nervous, so had no reason to be comforted by a rousing speech, however, he did feel the need to follow tradition. Perhaps this would do, "All hands, this is your Captain speaking. We are about to challenge an unknown contact as it exits hyperspace in close proximity to Earth. Red Alert, man your battle stations, prepare to repel borders, and boarding parties to the ready. Data out."

It wasn't long after Data's speech ended that a very large hammer shaped ship re-entered normal space from a disturbance, not too far from where the science officer had predicted.

"Scan the Vessel." Seconds later he added, "Hail the vessel."

"Scanning, Aye. Channel open, sir." Replied the droid at the tactical station.

"This is Captain Data, of The Federation Starship Enterprise. You have entered a restricted area. Please identify yourself and state your intentions."

Moments later, a hologram appeared front and center. It appeared to be a gray, asexual, being about four feet tall. It spoke in English, "I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet aboard the Cruiser Beliskner. My intention is to investigate your presence in this system as it has been very important to my people for a very long time. What is the source of your authority to restrict access to this planet?"

"By virtue of it being the home planet of those who created this ship and all who serve aboard her, as well as the other assets your sensors have no doubt detected by now. Why is this planet important to your people?"

Data observed the alien as he pondered the question, or more likely, how much to tell Data. "There is a parasitic species within this galaxy that uses the human body as their preferred host. They are quite malevolent. We believe that preventing them from acquiring six billion new hosts along with the vastly different technological base that has developed on the planet below to be of great importance. If the Goa'uld were to develop based upon your technological base, they would be far less limited than they are with their current technology base. That is something that the wider universe can not permit. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Great Races Alliance to ensure that it does not come to pass. How is it that the people of your planet have come to have access to subspace technology? And in such a curious collection of technologies as well."

"Curious? How so?"

"Most species, when they first develop a new branch of technology will apply it to the greatest use to society. Rarely does that mean Starships as the first construction, or space stations of impressive size. Also curious is the manner of their construction, as though you decided to build the space station, and it was completed, or you acquired it from somewhere else in the galaxy, but we are unfamiliar with any race with sufficient skills to develop such a station. My people likely could, but we wouldn't have done so. None of the races that we are aware of that are advanced enough to have built such a thing would have, as we prefer smaller, more easily managed structures. Even the Alteran's grand City Ships are only a fraction of your station's size, capable of holding at most a million beings the same general size, shape, and requirements as the humans of the Tau'ri."

"I see. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to divulge the manner in which our ships and other resources were acquired, however, my commanding officer, Fleet Admiral Alexander Harris may be willing to answer that question for you. He was in the midst of another crisis when my ship detected your approach, or he would have met you himself."

Thor replied, "I see. Is it something I would be able to help with?"

"I do not believe so. It was my impression that The Admiral wanted to handle this personally, and nearly had the situation resolved in any case."

Data noticed one of his control PADDs blinking for his attention and read its display. "It appears that he will be with us shortly, and that he was successful in retrieving his kidnapped crewmember. Apparently, two perpetrators are in custody, and one zombie destroyed."

Thor looked, well, he didn't look perplexed, but he did exhibit the Asgard symptoms. "If I may, what is a zombie?"

"I had not believed they existed, and I am unsure if I believe now, but they are a form of undead. If the data I am reading is accurate, a zombie is a macabre being, constructed from one or more deceased humans and reanimated through a magical process."

"This, magic, is it synonymous with a specific subspace technological process, or is it a broader term for your field of subspace technologies?"

"To the best of my current understanding of magic, it is neither. It is an entirely separate and personal ability to manipulate many energy formats for varied purposes. I would believe it to have been all just illusion and misdirection with an underlying technological aspect, were it not for Lieutenant Commander Rosenberg's ongoing desires to attempt to quantify the energies involved and the biological processes that allow her to manipulate them."

At this, Thor did look shocked. That was an ability only the extinct Alterans had ever exhibited! Had the humans discovered an Alteran who was unaware of her heritage? Or had the humans finally evolved to the point where they were capable, as a species, of wielding those great and terrible powers many Epoch earlier than the Alteran themselves had? The Asgard had long revered the Alterans, trying to live up to what they had been taught when the Asgard had been the infant race, and the Alterans had been the wise elders. Then came the discovery of their great tragedy, that the combination of the many things that the Asgard had done to their species to enable them to live long enough to follow their friends in ascension, had forever denied them that opportunity. Several Asgard had died of grief that day, unable to maintain the mental coherence to survive the transference process into a new body. Odin, Thor's father, had been one of them, and Thor had almost been one of them himself.

If Data had been human, he may well have missed Thor's muttered comment, "An Alteran? After all this time? What would she be doing on this plane of existence?"

It was then that the Defiant de-cloaked and came alongside the Enterprise. "Xander to Data, I take it that we have new friends?"

"That is quite possible sir. I was about to stand down to yellow alert when you hailed."

"Well then, don't let me stop you. Permission to come aboard?"

"Granted sir. Tactical, stand down to yellow alert." Returning his attention to Thor, "Supreme Commander, I have just been contacted, Admiral Harris has just come aboard, if you would care to, I would like to extend that invitation to you as well."

Five minutes later saw everyone seated around the main conference table aboard the Enterprise.

Data had introduced the entire Sunnydale contingent to the Supreme Commander of The Asgard Fleet.

Xander had asked for Thor to give them some basic background information on the Asgard, as they knew virtually nothing of the species.

"The Asgard have been a space fairing race for nearly thirty million years, and a member of The Great Races Alliance for all but the first million years of that. We reside within the Ida galaxy, but have explored much of the local group."

Jana asked, "What is The Great Races Alliance? How does one gain entry? Why would a species wish to do so?"

Thor considered a moment how to answer, "The Great Races Alliance was formed by four galaxy spanning species. They were The Alterans, The Asgard, The Furlings, and The Nox. The Alterans ascended to a higher plane of existence long ago. The Furlings have also moved on from this region of space, not long after The Alterans ascended. The Nox and The Asgard have all but removed ourselves from this galaxy to allow a younger race the room to grow into The Fifth Race.

"One does not so much gain entry to the Alliance, as realize they already are.

"As for why a species would grow and evolve far enough to become one of the great races, we leave it to each individual race to determine what is in their own best interests."

Giles took a moment to ask, "Would the, um, The Goa'uld ever be considered a Great Race? They do overrun most of this galaxy at present, if our information is correct."

"No. Their reliance on humans for every aspect of their civilization and their other parasitical traits would preclude their admittance. Population and territory have little to do with a race's inherent greatness. I believe that you will find that it will happen quite naturally for your species, though you have quite a ways to go before becoming The Fifth Race."

"Supreme Commander Thor," Data began, "earlier, you called Lieutenant Commander Rosenberg an Alteran. Would you please explain the comment?"

Data was the only one in the room capable of detecting Thor's embarrassed blush and cursing himself for his inability to keep his mouth shut. Fortunately for the Asgard, it was far too low for the universal translator to pick up, and neither it nor Data had sufficient experience with the language to figure out what he had said.

"Humans are not the first species in this galaxy to develop in that form. From the History I was told as a child, you are the second evolution of the human, and the Alterans were the first. They grew up here, and created the Stargates, spreading across this vast galaxy, learning all that they could. As their knowledge of the cosmos expanded, eventually, so too did their own minds and bodies evolve into more and more advanced beings, eventually able to control abilities much like Lieutenant Commander Rosenberg has been reported to be capable of. Approximately ten million years ago, most of the Alterans fled this galaxy as it was being consumed by a terrible plague. The Alterans who remained behind wiped out all life in this galaxy to destroy the plague, and then reseeded the galaxy with life, so that it could grow and develop much as it had been doing all along, however, your planet was already abandoned by them. Shortly there after, the Asgard discovered it over run with vicious creatures, that while intelligent and powerful, had no moral compass, no drive to better themselves, only the acquisition of power. With no Alterans left in this galaxy, Terra was left to fend for herself.

"Ten thousand years ago, many of the Alterans returned to this galaxy, to see what had transpired in their absence, and helped to free Terra from those creatures. Unfortunately, this brought the attention of the Goa'uld to the planet, and it wasn't until roughly three thousand years ago that your people finally chased them off the planet. That essentially leads us to current events, and gives some idea as to the legacy that the Alterans have left in you."

Xander asked, "Thor, do you know of a race of beings called the 'Fwirthi?'"

Thor checked his link to his ship's database before responding, "It is not a species that the Asgard has come into contact with. Why do you ask?"

Xander nodded before continuing, "They are the reason that Earth is experiencing the rapid shifts in technology that we currently are. While most of the populous is still rather ignorant of the universe at large, it is apparent that The US Government is not, and many of the older nations are aware of the demonic presence still infesting our planet." Xander thought for a moment, "Let me try that explanation again.

"We do not know the Fwirthi, we only know of them because one of their freighters lost a good portion of its cargo in our star system. It is this cargo, which finally started making planetfall a little over a week ago, which has allowed me to construct this vessel, the others in our fleet, and the various space stations in this system. Originally, it was my intention to ensure the survival of Humanity in the face of unknown aliens who might not have our best interests at heart.

"Now that we know that there are hostile aliens out there, we are taking further steps to protect ourselves.

"Now that we also know that there are friendly aliens out there, well, we hope to make more friends than we do enemies."

With that, Xander and Thor exchanged communications protocols, as both had learned a great deal that night, and needed time to absorb it all before making changes to any plans they had.

* * *

AN: Ok, I seem to have misplaced two of my beta readers. I sent them this chapter a week and a half ago, but haven't heard from them. So, if you happen to be good at proof-reading, and are willing to beta, please let me know.

As always, thanks go to my Beta: CaptNemo for general proof reading and sounding board (even if I don't use most of the Ideas he gives me, it's a great help!)


	10. Saturday II

_Saturday, Scooby Mansion_

Agents B and D approached from the road. Agent B asked "Are you sure this place is owned by the Summer's woman?"

"That's what the county registrar's office said. It was purchased on Monday for the asking price, plus several commissions. All taxes are paid for the next five years as well. "

"Well, let's see if anyone's home."

The two agents walked up to the gate, and not seeing any doorbells or intercoms, tried opening the gates. Finding them unlocked, the they entered the property and headed for the mansion directly ahead.

Meanwhile, within the mansion itself, one of the SE4 butler droids approached Xander while he was working with one of his computers that was acting as an up-link to G95, Utopia Planetia, and Dawn's Star Destroyer. He was just checking the progress of the network of sensor and weapons arrays that Data had designed to be the first line of defense for the system. So far, eighty of the fifty meter automated vessels had been deployed. Each vehicle's sensors were networked through one of the main science labs on Utopia Planetia, and the collection of the individual sensor data gave a far more detailed resolution than would be otherwise possible, much like the Very Large Array's Earth astronomers have been using for many years with radio telescopes. Utopia Planetia would also control the ship's weapons systems, making that array Very Dangerous. While not as heavily armed as even a science vessel, they were extremely heavily armed for their size.

"Excuse me Master Xander."

"Yes Alfred? What can I do for you?"

"There are two unannounced persons coming up the drive. Sensors indicate that they have normal body temperature and are lightly armed and armored."

"Thank you Alfred, take three Droideka and find out what they want please. If they have honest intentions, escort them to the front hall, otherwise, take them into custody for trespassing and hold them in separate rooms."

Moments later, three Droideka surrounded the two agents and the SE4 droid Xander had named Alfred approached. Once within speaking range of the two trespassers, Alfred stated, "Gentlemen, you are trespassing on private property. Please state your business or you will be placed under arrest for felony trespass."

Agent B examined each of the droids before addressing the one that spoke, "I am Agent Baker, my partner is Agent Dover, we are Federal Agents conducting an official investigation. Any attack upon our persons will be met with military force. We are looking for Mrs. Joyce Summers, or her daughter, Miss Buffy Ann Summers. If they are in residence, inform them that there are two Federal Agents here to speak with them."

Alfred examined the two agents carefully, looking for signs of deception, and discovering none, other than the understandable apprehension of facing 4 heavily armed droids, informed them "Please present your credentials."

At the prompt, the two agents handed the droid their badges and identification cards. Alfred examined the identifications for several moments and after being unable to score a match in any of the federal databases, asked "What department do you work for?"

"We represent the Department of Fish and Game," Agent B stated.

Alfred responded immediately, "That is incorrect. Your names and badge numbers are not within the Federal Fish and Game database. Would you care to try again?"

Agents B and D looked at each other for a moment, apparently having a brief conversation, before Agent D said, "We work for a classified branch of the federal intelligence community, and are not at liberty at present to discuss classified details with you or others in residence. We have been sent by our superiors to interview Mrs. Joyce Summers and Miss Buffy Summers specifically, and any others we feel necessary in the course of our investigation."

"I have relayed your request to my master. Leave your weapons holstered. If you draw your weapons, you will be fired upon by the household security and defense systems. This way please." Alfred led the procession of droids and two NID agents to the main hall to await Xander's orders.

Two minutes later, Xander walked into the main hall wearing his Starfleet duty uniform. "Welcome to Scooby Mansion Agents, my name is Fleet Admiral Xander Harris. Next time, I suggest calling ahead, and we can avoid the unpleasantness of the armed escort."

"We have been trying to contact you and your associates for several days."

"Perhaps you should check with the other branches of government then, as we have been in contact with the SGC rather regularly. In any case, it is required that you make an appointment from now on. Any further acts of trespass will be assumed to be hostile and met with all necessary force. Now, what can I do for the NID?"

The two agents looked at each other, slightly taken aback by the fact that the young man correctly identified the organization that they worked for. "You are in possession, or know someone who is in possession of a contraband device. We are here to confiscate that device. It appears to have two forms, one of which is that of a metallic silver briefcase sized box, the other is that of a telephone booth sized metallic silver box. Where is it?"

"Ah, you are referring to the MAU. Morphic Adaption Unit Mark Five. Yes, I have one, no, not within the mansion. It is in a safe place where people like you and your organization will not be able to get your hands on it. It would be far too dangerous in your hands. I am actually collecting them from all over the planet, trying to get them out of general circulation after an incident where an individual used them to start a crime spree. At last count we have four hundred fifty four thousand two hundred eighty nine of the devices in secure storage. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

The agents again conferred silently before agent B again took over, "Do you know how these droids were built? You can make more of them?"

"Yes, I do know how they are built, yes, I can make more of them, and several other designs as well, however the resident robotocists are Dawn Summers and Jana Calderash, both under my command."

"By Order of the President, 1374, You, Dawn Summers, and Jana Calderash are hereby drafted into United States Military Service."

"You can go ahead and stop right there. First of all, Slavery is illegal in this nation. As a Draft is a form of Slavery, your statement is irrelevant. Second, even if the Draft were legal, both myself and Dawn Summers are under the age requirements for service in the United States Military. Third, Miss Calderash is not a US National, as such, she cannot be drafted either. Fourth, should you make any form of physical attempt at kidnapping, conscription, or enforced servitude of any kind, I will personally make it my mission in life to destroy you, your superiors, and your organization. If you choose to make it personal, I will respond in kind."

Xander thought for half a heartbeat before continuing. "Tell me, are either of you familiar with anti-matter? Specifically, how it reacts to matter?"

Agent B answered, "Not specifically, but I know the general theory, a given amount of anti-matter will react with an identical amount of matter, releasing a massive amount of energy while the particles mutually annihilate."

"Close enough," Xander replied. "My ships, the ones that are currently protecting this star system, are all equipped with matter/anti-matter weapons. If you've seen Star Trek, you'll be familiar with the Photon Torpedo?" Seeing their general comprehension Xander continued, "Good. Each Photon Torpedo carries one point five kilograms of anti-matter. This will yield a detonation roughly equivalent to seventy and a half megatons. All of my ships also carry the Quantum Torpedo, which is about two and a half times more powerful. Now, I should also point out that I have Transporters which are capable of teleporting a person or object from one place to another. I also know that your organization doesn't have shielding technology that is capable of blocking my transporters, so there would really be no point in trying to kidnap one of my people, as I would very quickly locate them, remove them from your custody, and replace them with a Quantum Torpedo which would soon detonate at roughly one hundred seventy six megatons.

"The lightest class starship I currently have in orbit is a Science Frigate, and she carries six hundred Quantum Torpedoes. The Heaviest ship in the fleet is the Megaroad class Battlefortress and she carries one hundred twenty-four thousand, eight hundred Quantum Torpedoes. Please keep these facts in mind should you decide on a course of hostile actions.

"Now, if there is no further business, I would offer the following piece of friendly advice. Leave town as soon as possible if not sooner. There are elements in this town that you do not want to deal with."

"Is that a threat Mr. Harris?"

"Fleet Admiral. That was not a threat, as I said, it was a friendly bit of advice. Now, me telling you about photon torpedoes if anyone attempts to kidnap or enslave any of my personnel, now _that_ was a threat. One which I strongly suggest you take very seriously as well."

"You are aware that threatening Federal Agents is against the law?"

"You are aware that kidnapping, slavery, trafficking in humans and theft are also against the law? All of which you have stated a desire to commit during this meeting. You are supposedly Federal Agents, so you should know that you are not permitted to do such things."

"Are you a lawyer Mr. Harris?"

"I'm sorry, but did you not hear me Agent Brain-dead? I know that I specifically introduced myself as Fleet Admiral Harris, and corrected you the last time you failed to use my title correctly. Do it again, and this meeting will be over. Now, what was your question?"

"Are you a lawyer Fleet Admiral Harris?"

"No, I'm not. Are you?"

"Are you a Federal Agent?"

"That is not an answer to my question."

Agent B asked again, a bit more forcefully, "Are you a Federal Agent?"

"If that's the way you wish to conduct yourselves, that will be the end of this meeting Agents." Xander turned to Alfred, "See the gentlemen to the front gate, they will be leaving immediately. If they do not, they will be considered trespassing, and you will take them into custody as such." Returning his attention to the two agents, "Good day gentlemen."

"Mr. Harris, we aren't done yet."

"Yes, you are. Unless you would like to try your hand against my security personnel?"

"Alexander Harris, Dawn Summers, and Jana Kalderash are hereby ordered to present themselves for conscription into military service of the United States of America, furthermore, Alexander Harris is ordered to hand over all of the devices known as the Morphic Adaption Unit Mark Five immediately, as it is a contraband item and possession thereof is a felony. Comply, or be taken into custody by force."

"You gentlemen appear to be of the opinion that Might Makes Right. As such, I am very glad that not only are we all better people than you, but vastly more powerful as well. Alfred, stun them." Alfred relayed the order to the Droideka and they immediately opened fire upon the two agents with phasers, incapacitating the two agents effortlessly, even as they began reaching for their own weapons.

Xander tapped his com-badge, "Xander to Defiant, three to transport to the brig."

SGC, a few minutes earlier

Sgt. Harriman knocked on General Hammond's door before entering, "Sir, SG-1 is on line three for you."

"Thank you Walter." Hammond picked up the phone, "General Hammond here."

"Sir, we can't find them. We've been to their homes, the local schools, listed places of employment, everything. Would you please call them and ask where we can meet them?"

"I'll have Sgt. Harriman make the call and get back to you within the hour."

Scooby Mansion

As SG-1 exited their SUV, Jack comments "So this is where Harris moved to when he ran away from home? Wish I had thought of that as a kid…"

Daniel seemed to agree, "Talk about failing upwards."

As the group approached the main doors, they opened to reveal a simple looking bronze colored droid.

"Greetings SG-1. My name is Alfred, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to Scooby Mansion. Admiral Harris is expecting you, however he was called away briefly on a matter of some urgency. We expect him back presently. If you would please come this way, I have some refreshments waiting."

After following Alfred to the sitting room, Sam asked, "Alfred, can we ask you some questions?"

"You may ask, however, there are many that I will not be permitted to answer, except to say that I'm not permitted to answer them. There may be many more questions that I will be unable to answer due to lack of knowledge."

"That's fair enough. I suppose my first question then is what are you?"

"I am a droid, specifically, an SE4 Butler droid, upgraded to coordinate and assist in the defense of the mansion. The mansion itself is staffed entirely by droids."

"Are you alive, or entirely artificial?"

"All droids are entirely artificial. We are manufactured and programmed to be of assistance to our owners, to serve them faithfully in any way we are capable."

"That sounds an awful lot like slavery," Daniel commented.

Alfred considered that for a brief moment, "You arrived here in a land vehicle, did you not?" it asked the archaeologist.

"We did."

"Do you consider that slavery?"

"Our vehicles are incapable of communicating intelligently with us."

"Communication skills do not a sapient creature make, and very few droids ever become sapient. All droids are programmed with a very high degree of intelligence, including myself. There is a very large difference however between intelligence, sentience, and sapience. Most animals on your planet qualify for sentient as they respond as if they are aware of their own selves, but only the species homo-sapiens has thus far qualified as sapient on this planet. Once a droid is discovered to be sapient they are granted their freedom and independence. Nobody here is a supporter of the enslavement of any life form, biological or artificial."

"Thank you Alfred. I hope you understand our concern."

"Only to the degree my programming allows. As a butler, I am not one of the more sophisticated models, however, I believe I do understand your concerns in dealing with a relatively unknown and new business associate. You wish to ensure that everything is legitimate."

Again, Sam asked, "What is your power source?"

"I am afraid that I am not programmed for repairing droids. As such, I am not familiar with their inner workings. I know that I run for approximately 200 standard hours before needing to shut down for re-charging, but that is the extent of my knowledge on that subject."

Sam was rather disappointed, while Jack and Teal'c both appeared relieved, though, only SG-1 would be able to read Teal'c's response accurately. Daniel could at least understand why they would be relieved.

Daniel asked, "What else can you tell us about droids, keeping in mind that we've never met one before?"

"There are many different types of droids, each one dedicated to a specific type of task. The most plentiful types are the Protocol droids, as a butler, I am of this type. Tutorial droids, nanny droids, translator droids, administration droids, are all of this type as well. Next most common type of droid is the ubiquitous Astromech droid. They are designed to assist at a wide variety of tasks, mostly centered on repairs and space navigation, while repair droids are specialized only for repairs. There are medical droids, often amongst the most advanced droids in design, they are entrusted with the delicate task of healing sick and wounded biological units. They also have the strictest and deepest embedded programming concerning the sanctity of life. The MD series make excellent nurses, pharmacists, and lab assistants, while the 2-1B makes a far superior care provider than a biological Doctor. No one has sued a medical droid for malpractice in over five thousand years of galactic history. There are also military droids." At this, Jack and Teal'c perked up. Having been interested in the claims for better medical care, but not sure they would trust a machine more than they would Doc Frasier. "Police droids are the most common, programmed for the apprehension of suspects, but combat droids are not rare. There are tracking droids, sentry and guard droids, probe droids, messenger droids, general labor droids, supervisor droids, housekeeping droids, exploration droids, mining droids, and a great many others. If there is a task you can think of, there is likely a droid that can perform that task, especially if that task is either dangerous for biologicals, or undesirable."

Jack of course had to ask, "What do you mean by military droids?"

"Well, there are of course military versions of the standard types of droid, more capable of keeping military secrets, more knowledgeable of the military way of doing things, but when one refers to military droids, one is usually referring to combat droids, droids intended for use fighting skirmishes, battles, and of course wars. There are infantry droids, artillery droids, tank droids, starfighter droids, again, if there is a military application, there is likely a droid to fit that application. They of course come in every conceivable size, from small droids designed to fit in pockets, to the very large, meant to dominate battlefields and war zones. According to my database, the largest droid ever built was designed to secure a star system, a task that it successfully completed until the star itself went nova. It was the only droid of its type, as it bankrupted its builders, eventually leading to the collapse of that society."

The very thought of such a thing left all four members of SG-1 in silent contemplation for several minutes. It was a silence that was only broken by Xander as he beamed into the room.

"Sorry I'm late. I had a run in with the NID, and was required to take out some trash."

At this, SG-1 broke from their introspection, and stood to greet him.

After greetings, "I hope Alfred has been keeping you entertained?" Xander asked with a lopsided grin.

"Indeed," replied Teal'c. "He was much more informative than C-3PO would have been."

"We have droids to make our lives more convenient, not more frustrating," Xander replied still smiling.

"Good point," Daniel said quietly. "You said something about getting rid of the NID?"

Darkly, Xander said, "I stripped them to their underwear, and tattooed "Slaver" across their backs, implanted tracking devices into them in order to locate their bases of operation, then transported them six blocks from their headquarters. It is my intention to see that they are shut down. Permanently. Fatally if necessary, but only if necessary."

At the slaver comment, they were confused about the relevance, so Sam asked, "Slaver?"

"Yes. They attempted to forcibly conscript several of my people, something that I consider to be slavery. Well, they said it was a draft, sounded more like kidnapping and then forced labor to me."

Daniel and Teal'c nodded, though Sam looked conflicted. Jack just looked rather angry at yet another attempted kidnapping by the NID, though uncomfortable with Xander's intention to attack federal agents. All four of them thought that the NID agents had gotten off lightly thus far, assuming that they survived to make it back to their headquarters.

Xander continued, though much more friendly, "So, what can I do for SG-1 today?"

Teal'c answered for the team, "I have come to offer my knowledge of the Goa'uld. I have brought both Staff weapon, as well as Zat'nik'tel for your scientific endeavors."

"Thank you Teal'c. This will go quite some ways in answering some fundamental questions we have about their space-based capabilities. We have been producing ships at minimal levels because we didn't know if they would be effective against the Goa'uld or not. We have made a good many educated guesses based upon everything that we've learned, but they are only guesses. I believe that our ships are strong enough to take them on, one on one, but we do not know about specifics. How many Ha'tak would it take to overwhelm the Enterprise? In a match up between a starfighter and a Death-glider, who comes out on top? We need the answers to these questions before we risk any personnel so that we can plan strategy and dog-fighting tactics accordingly."

"I am happy to assist your endeavors to end the threat of the Goa'uld, Fleet Admiral Harris."

"So would you like to see the Defiant?" Xander asked. Seeing nods all around, Xander tapped his com-badge, "Xander to Defiant, five to beam up. Engage when ready." Moments later they stood in the transporter room of the Defiant.

Not quite as impressed as they might have been had they not experienced matter-energy transporters before, both the Goa'uld version as well as the Asgard version, though the sensations were different. Goa'uld transport rings felt domineering, while the Asgard beaming technology felt cold, or clinical. Starfleet transporters felt clean & refreshing by comparison. Sam wondered if it was merely coincidence, or if their inventors had designed them that way? She brushed it off as it was a question she was unlikely to ever have an opportunity to answer. It was also unlikely that anyone but those like them, the SG-Teams and others who did similar jobs, would ever notice such subtle differences.

Everyone noticed that Teal'c was still in the transport beam, just as the droid operating the console spoke, "Welcome aboard Admiral Harris. I was unable to complete transportation of your fourth guest due to bio-containment protocol. He appears to be infested with a class 3 parasite according to the bio-filters."

Xander walked to the transporter console. "Understood. Is he otherwise clear to finish transport?"

"Yes sir. No other dangerous organisms."

"Complete transfer then, authorization, Harris, Alexander, now shut up and do it." Jack smirked at Xander's authorization code, while Daniel and Sam tried to stifle chuckles.

"Aye sir, completing transport."

Once Teal'c had finished materializing, he was disoriented briefly from the extended transport, but quickly recovered. Seeing that Teal'c would be fine, he turned back to the transporter droid, "Ensign, have cargo bay one transport the SUV in front of Scooby Mansion up. Weapons protocol override. Have the energy weapons delivered to main engineering, right away."

The droid operating the console dutifully answered, "Aye sir. Transport with Weapons protocol override. Energy weapons will be delivered to main engineering immediately."

Xander turned to SG-1, "Lady, gentlemen, I believe a tour had been offered?"

Again, SG-1 was very agreeable, so Xander began his tour. "The U.S.S. Defiant. Hull registry, NX-74205. One hundred seventy meters long, one hundred thirty-four meters wide, and thirty meters tall, with a mass of three hundred fifty-five thousand metric tons. She has four decks, carries fifty crew normally, but can carry an additional one hundred fifty passengers in an emergency. She's armed with one class XII phaser bank, four class I rapid firing phaser pulse cannons, three rapid fire quantum torpedo launchers, eight rapid fire point defense rail guns, a two point five million terra-joule shield array and forty centimeters of ablative armor. She has a maximum sub-light speed of ninety-five PSL, has a sustainable top speed of warp nine point nine nine five, but an absolute maximum of nine point nine nine nine five for six hours, and is fold capable. She carries two five meter shuttles, and sufficient munitions for continuous, maximum rate of fire, for eight minutes. Energy weapons extend the actual combat time of course, and the computer only fires when there's something to hit, so the actual time is more like thirty minutes. Also, the Defiant is an escort, and while she is a powerful ship, at the end of the day, she is still just an escort, not designed for the heavy combat roles that Akira is." Xander took the group through the ship, stopping on the bridge, the mess hall, where Jack picked up a replicated serving of blue jello, cargo bay one, sick bay, where they were briefly scanned by the holographic doctor. He pronounced them all perfectly healthy, but if they wanted, when they were finished with their tour, he would be happy to remove the scars that they had all acquired over their careers, as well as helping Jack with both knee and recent shoulder injuries.

Eventually, they wound up in main engineering, where tests were already underway upon the staff weapons Teal'c had delivered. The engineering hologram was busy calibrating the test stand, trying to find the maximum output of the staff weapon, as well as the average output. He assured Xander that he would get all the information he could from it.

Their tour was interrupted by a call however, "Jana to Xander."

Xander tapped his com-badge, "Go ahead."

"We are receiving a message from the SGC for Teal'c. I think you should bring SG-1 to the bridge."

"Understood. We are on our way." Xander looked at the others, "Well folks, you heard the pretty lady, back to the bridge…" he joked as he lead the way back to the bridge.

Once at the bridge, a short trip as usual on such a small vessel, Jana re-established communications with the SGC. "General Hammond, Teal'c and SG-1 have arrived."

"Thank you Commander Calderash. Teal'c, Master Bra'tac has arrived to inform you of some bad news. He wishes to do so in person."

"Understood General Hammond. One moment please."

Jana put the communication on mute, "Mute."

Teal'c turned to the others, "Master Bra'tac would not have come had the news not been most important."

Xander offered, "If I recall correctly, he is the one who trained you? You trust him implicitly?"

"That is correct Fleet Admiral Harris. He is the most trusted man I know."

Xander nodded and decided to do likewise. "We can bring him up then, if that's your pleasure Teal'c."

"It would indeed please me to introduce him personally."

"Very well then, inform him to await transport."

Jana stated, "unmute," and did so.

"General Hammond, where is Master Bra'tac?" Teal'c asked.

Master Bra'tac responded personally, "I am here Old Friend."

Xander went to one of the consoles, scanned the control room, found the only humanoid with a larval symbiont, and transferred orders to beam that person directly to the bridge, bio-hazard protocol override authorized for the symbiont.

Being unused to Asgard tactics of simply beaming people aboard whom they wished to speak to, Bra'tac was unprepared for being whisked from the control room of SGC to the bridge of a starship.

Teal'c greeted the wizened old warrior, "Tec'ma'te, Master Bra'tac."

Having almost missed his friends greeting amidst the wonders of the starship's bridge, with the droids moving about their tasks, being that they were far too small to house even a tiny Asgard within their shells, Bra'tac made the correct guess that they were entirely artificial in nature. To be in the presence of a race that could both transport without rings, as it was rumored that the Mighty Asgard could do, as well as devise such automatons, and apparently had become friends with the Tau'ri, well, to Bra'tac the implications would take some time to process fully.

He did however turn to his friend and returned the greeting. "Tec'ma'te, Teal'c. The Tau'ri, they have new allies?"

"They do not Master Bra'tac. They have discovered the means to build this ship on their own."

"I will admit Old Friend that that statement fills me with both hope and trepidation."

"Come, allow me to introduce our hosts." Teal'c lead Bra'tac to where Xander was standing, with Jana still sitting in the Captain's chair. "Master Bra'tac, this is Fleet Admiral Xander Harris, the commander of many ships such as this, and one of his officers Commander Jana Calderash. Fleet Admiral Xander Harris, Commander Jana Calderash, this is my mentor and friend for many years, Master Bra'tac."

"Welcome aboard the Defiant, Master Bra'tac." Xander greeted.

"I thank you for inviting me. I have a question, if I may?"

"Please do."

"With Teal'c's help, I have studied much about Tau'ri and their military, but I do not recognize that particular rank.

"That is because it's not a standard Tau'ri rank. It originates from a fictional series of stories called 'Star Trek' and an organization depicted therein called 'Starfleet.' A Fleet Admiral is the admiral in charge of the entire organization, all ships, star bases, outposts, and installations. Rather like what I imagine Ra's First prime was like, or the American Secretary of Defense."

"I see. You would then be of higher rank than Hammond of Texas?"

"In theory, yes. In practice, I could not give General Hammond an order because I am not in his chain of command. My authority does not extend to the planet Earth itself, only the rest of the star system, even though we do heavily monitor it."

Bra'tac nodded his understanding and turned to Teal'c. "I come bearing bad news old friend."

Teal'c became concerned at the news, "My family?"

"Drey'auc is safe, but Rya'c has been taken by Apophis."

Jack interrupted, "Wait a sec, hold on, time out, Apophis is dead. We all saw his ship blow up. He could not have survived the explosion."

Bra'tac nodded, "It is my understanding that he escaped through the Chappa'i just before the explosion. In that defeat, he lost most of his available troops. He is weak right now, and in truth, may never be weaker."

Xander stepped into the conversation, "Gentlemen, ignoring the whole dead/not dead thing for a moment, if it is your intention to rescue Rya'c, I would like to offer one of my vessels for the rescue mission. We have been looking for an opportunity to engage the Goa'uld in space combat, and this might be just such an opportunity."

Bra'tac thought for a few moments before asking, "Please, explain."

"We believe our newly acquired technology is superior to Goa'uld technology, but we have not yet had an opportunity to test this belief. We know scientifically what our equipment is capable of, but do not have an accurate way to define what the Goa'uld are capable of. All we have are comparisons between individual Goa'uld forces and estimates of how strong any given weapon is, with the exception of the Staff and Zat'nik'tel weapons, as provided by Teal'c. The testing, now underway in main engineering, will give us an idea of what to expect from the Goa'uld, but to know for certain, we will eventually have to engage them in combat to gather the pertinent data." Xander explained. "I of course invite the rest of SG-1 along in what ever capacity you wish to participate, either as observers, or more hands on, so long as we can obtain the information we need, we will help as much as possible."

Bra'tac and Teal'c thought this over for a few moments. Teal'c nodded to Bra'tac, who asked, "What, then would be your plan?"

Xander nodded, thinking for a few moments, "How many ships would Apophis typically keep in orbit?"

"He currently has three ships in orbit, most of his other forces are either unavailable, or destroyed in recent conflicts with other Goa'uld."

"What of ground based defenses?"

"There is another ship, grounded, undergoing heavy repairs. Plus the defenses of the palace itself."

"Then I suggest we take one of my larger ships, fully loaded with all the crew I can scrape together, and go pay old Apophis a visit he'll soon regret. Once we arrive, we achieve space superiority, and demand that he surrender Rya'c and himself to stand trial for kidnapping."

Bra'tac responded, "Apophis will of course not do so."

"Of course not. It's in the Megalomaniac's handbook. What he will do is attack, possibly after a bit of posturing, maybe a little bit of monologueing, but he will of course be so incensed that a lower life form such as myself has dared demand anything from him, he will be incapable of thinking clearly, and will attack with everything he has."

"what then?"

"Then we locate Rya'c and beam him out of there, going down in shuttles or fighters if necessary to do so. Assuming that you'd like to avoid as many Jaffa casualties as possible, it would probably be better to use starfighters and Destroids to eliminate ground based gun batteries unless it would be necessary to use ship based weapons to take them out.

"Once Apophis is dead, will the Jaffa surrender, or will they continue to fight?"

Bra'tac considered his people and the other Jaffa under Apophis' command. "I believe that the majority will surrender, as most are from Chu'lac and they will want to protect the people more than themselves, however, many I believe will not surrender, as you are not Goa'uld and would not be taking up Apophis' territory. They will believe it to be better to die in battle than whatever fate may befall them."

"Good, any Jaffa who surrenders his weapons and armor will be permitted to leave the field of battle. Any who return to battle will be incarcerated. Stun weapons will be used wherever possible."

_Two hours later_

SG-1 and Bra'tac beamed back up to Defiant, and Xander met them in the transporter room.

Jack spoke first, "Permission to come aboard Admiral?"

"Permission granted, Colonel."

As Jack and the rest stepped down from the transporter pads, Jack continued, "General Hammond has given us a go for a joint rescue mission, however, we need to bring Drey'auc and Rya'c back with us, as he doesn't want them to be used against Teal'c again."

Xander nodded, "We'll be happy to have a couple extra passengers on the way back."

Xander led the group back to the bridge. Once they arrived, Jana was still sitting in the command chair, and Xander said "Jana, we have a go for the mission. Is everyone on board?"

"Yes Admiral. Dawn was getting a few last tests finished on the Staff weapon and then rigging it for transport. Double Oh-British is with Green Lantern in the mess hall, trying to stay out of everyone else's way. Buffy is drooling over the toys in the armory. Willow teleported up a few minutes ago, and sent a message, basically demanding the opportunity that she get to try some magic against the Jaffa, if you're going to get the opportunity to technology them to pieces. The Cheerleader is still in the computer core trying desperately to re-design the uniform to fit requirements and not be, and I quote, 'Horrendously ugly.' I Should inform you that I've rigged it so that no design she submits aboard this ship will actually meet the requirements."

"Don't like cheerleaders?" Jack asked.

"Not at all, cheerleaders are fine, just can't stand 'Queen Bitch of the Universe.' Reminds me of my Cousin Bella, long may she rot in prison."

Xander spoke again, "Very well, set course for Vulcan, Full Impulse if you please, and once clear of Earth, kick it up to warp 2 please. Hold at the outer Marker."

Jack interrupted, "Wait a second, you mean there really is a planet Vulcan?"

"Planet Vulcan, no, at least, not that I know of anyway. There is however, one mother of a space station that I've called 'Vulcan' after the forge god. Vulcan is fully automated, and heavily defended. His main duty is to produce war materials which we will use to fight the Goa'uld."

Sam now interrupted, "Wait, 'His?'"

Xander nodded, "Lord Vulcan is an Artificial Sentience. He has the same rights, as far as we are concerned, that you and I do, your basic, inalienable human rights. And before anyone says anything, yes, I know, with the discovery of other sentient races in the galaxy, it's a bit racist to say things in those specific terms, but they're the only ones I've got, unless you've got some better for me?"

Sam and Daniel were quiet as they tried to fulfill their hosts request. Xander didn't want them geeking too much on Lord Vulcan's existence.

Jack picked up again, "So what exactly has Lord Vulcan been making?"

"He's been making mostly ships, droids, star fighters, small arms for soldiers, soldiers, body armor for soldiers, medical gear, food stores, pretty much anything and everything."

Daniel finally caught up with everything Xander had just said and questioned, "Did you just say 'soldiers?'"

Xander grinned at learning that the archaeologist had picked up on that. "I did. It takes two weeks to rapid-grow a clone and an additional week to fully train one to military standards. If we wish to produce a scientific or engineering version, training takes an additional 3 days. It also takes an additional day to sequence and grow a Near-Clone. We are not currently producing clones, but Near-Clones. We are also producing Third-Type droids as rapidly as possible."

Sam was now paying attention again and asked for clarification, "What is a Near-Clone? What's a Third-Type?"

"A Near Clone starts out as a genetic sample, just as a clone does, however, the sample is altered primarily for appearance, but also for other traits that are directly alterable through genetic engineering. No more vision problems, genetic disorders are eliminated, propensities for bad things reduced to zero, and propensities for good things turned up to maximum.

"As for Third-Type droids, well, they are droids that are indistinguishable from humans in any way. A First-type droid is any droid that is obviously a droid, such as our transporter chiefs, and most of our ships current crews. A Second-Type droid is like Captain Data. They can pass for humans unless close scrutiny is applied. Data is also artificially Sapient, but that is not a requirement of being either a Second-Type or Third-Type, though it does help in passing as a human. Third-Types can even participate in human reproduction, not just participate in, um, the act itself, like most Seconds, and even some Firsts."

"So how does a third type differ from a human or a Near-Clone?" she asked.

"Well, humans can't be programmed. Third-Types, no matter how closely they resemble humans, are still droids that can be programmed, re-programmed, and de-programmed, essentially at will."

"Admiral, we are at the outer marker." Jana reported.

"Excellent, on screen please," Xander requested. "Lady and Gentlemen, we are currently at five thousand kilometers from Vulcan. The main hub is twenty-five miles in diameter, and each of the smaller structures are two miles in diameter. The main hub contains all of the living quarters, and other support structures for the factory. It is capable of generating an artificial gravity field, or operating at zero gravity, depending on what would be more advantageous for construction. It is armed with a heavy quantum reaction canon, one hundred sixty quantum torpedo launchers, two hundred Class-XII phaser strips, one hundred pulse phaser canons, one hundred rapid fire point defense rail guns, one hundred forty planetary-class ion canons, and one hundred heavy ion canons. And that's just the main hub."

Daniel interrupted to ask, "What's a quantum reaction cannon?"

Xander answered, "You know of course that smaller than the atomic scale is the quantum scale, all of the tiny particles that make up the elements that most people are familiar with. The quantum reaction cannons emit an energy beam that interacts at the quantum level, and destabilizes the current structure." Sam gasped in shock at the inevitable result. "For those of us who aren't as quick as Doctor Carter, that basically means that it will disintegrate anything that the beam comes into contact with that isn't sufficiently shielded. Which for Vulcan, is approximately eight kilometers, by eight kilometers, by three hundred thousand kilometers." Xander gave everyone a moment to come to terms with that level of lethality before continuing. "Each of the smaller pods has approximately half the weapons that the main hub does. In addition, by the end of next week, Vulcan's primary defense fleet of roughly eleven hundred capital ships will be completed, fully staffed and armed. We will be taking but one of those ships, already completed, to Chu'lak. Unless we have drastically underestimated Goa'uld firepower, this star system is currently safe from anything but the entire Goa'uld armada attacking en mass."

Jana piped in with, "Don't forget the VDA."

Xander nodded, "Right, the VDA, or Very Dangerous Array is a very large array of satellites surrounding this star system at various distances and densities. Each has a sensor array about the equivalent of a runabout. Each is also armed with a phaser array and a quantum torpedo launcher, with very few rounds to save space. They also have shields, armor, and a rather impressive sub-light drive, which will take it very near the speed of light. While I doubt very much that they individually would take out more than a couple death gliders, their strength comes in sheer numbers. Several hundred can make it to any engagement area in the solar system in a matter of minutes. And given their sensor resolution, even an Asgard ship can be intercepted before it comes within firing range of the a potential target."

It was apparent that Xander was quite proud of everything that he had accomplished in the week and a half that they'd had the MAU. Far more than anyone else had done, he was certain. SG-1 was even quite impressed with his efforts, and only wished that even one of the devices had fallen into Air Force hands so that they could replicate Xander's efforts.

It was certainly a lot of power in the hands of a civilian, and like all civilians, they weren't certain that Xander and his group would always be on the side of the angels.

"Now, normally, we would simply transport to the ship we are going to take to Chu'lak, but I wanted you to have the chance to see the ship launch. Jana, please send the launch command, and center the screen on the docking bay."

Jana quickly complied, and shortly the massive docking bay doors slid apart, and the equally massive form of a Megaroad-Class Battlefortress slid between them. First to come out were the twin boom of the main heavy quantum disruption canon that composed a little over the front quarter of the ship. Next, the main body of the vessel slipped from the massive factory. It was where most of her weapons were located. It was also apparent that this was where her fighters were launched from, as several launched as soon as she cleared the hangar doors. The conning tower cleared the doors quickly, and not long after, so too did the engines at the aft of the sixteen hundred meter long ship. Once fully clear, the docking bay doors slid shut, and once closed, the massive ship increased speed rapidly, showing no sign that it realized just how massive it really was.

"She may only be as long as an Imperial Star Destroyer, but she's designed as a battlefortress, and has more than ten times the internal space. Energy weapons are the only thing that should be able to get past her interceptors, and for those, she has very heavy shields and armor. She carries over a thousand starfighters, and nearly fifteen hundred Destroids." Again, Xander was interrupted, and again it was Sam.

"What's a Destroid?"

"A Destroid is a twenty five to one hundred foot tall walking, bipedal, non-transformable, war machine. Faster and more maneuverable than any modern main battle tank or APC, able to take more damage, as well as being highly capable of delivering the bad guys a world of hurt. Most are about forty feet tall and armed with a variety of weapons, similar in many ways to most of our starfighters. The advantage our starfighters have is increased mobility and speed. The advantages of the Destroids are more firepower and much heavier shields and armor. Destroids also have a very powerful short range sensor suite, but only a basic long range sensor suite, opposed to the starfighters who have better long range sensors and only average short range. Like a starfighter, they are usually piloted by a single operator." Seeing that her curiosity had been satisfied for the time being, and likely was more than a little overwhelmed by all that they were learning, he left it at that.

"Now then, if you will accompany me to the transporter room, we'll beam over." After they all acknowledged his request and headed for the turbolift, Xander turned to Jana and said, "Please inform everyone who wishes to go to beam over now. We'll be folding as soon as we reach safe distance."

Jana nodded and activated ship-wide. "Attention: All hands wishing to attend the party at Chu'lac, please transport aboard The Skysaber now. That is all."

Bridge, SDF-Skysaber

Xander looked around the bridge, noting everyone who was there. "Did anyone forget anything?" After waiting thirty seconds and not hearing anyone speaking up, he turned to the droid captain of the vessel and continued. "Excellent. Captain, you may initiate a hull conformal fold to the coordinates given."

"Yes Admiral." Moments later, after it had verified that everything was in fact ready for the fold that they had been preparing for, it gave the command, "Ship Wide. Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking. Stand by for immediate space fold. That is all. Close ship wide. Initiate Space Fold for Chu'lak system."

Mere fractions of a second later, they emerged from space fold in the Chu'lak system, though, everyone but the droids felt as though different amounts of time had actually passed. Sam, Dawn, and Willow had even carried on a lengthy conversation, discussing the various merits of magic, technology, and psionics, even though nothing had physically happened, and it occurred entirely on a mental plane of existence that none of them had previously theorized had existed, in a serious way at any rate.

Eventually they came to the agreement that the fraction of a second that it took to cross the thousands of light years between the Sol and Chu'lak star systems was spent in much the same way that some spiritually sensitive individuals described Stargate travel. While their bodies may become non-significant, their consciousness, or soul, or whatever you wanted to call it, still experienced some amount of time. They figured that that time was likely spent in what the Aborigines of Australia and Native American Indians called "Dream Time."

The others had similarly spent the trip in discussion, Each according to their particular tastes and preferences. Jack and Xander discussed anti-Goa'uld tactics that had worked, and what hadn't. Daniel and Giles discussed history and how the common held events thought of as history, weren't worth the paper it was written on. Egyptology kept creeping into both men's lamentations as a common point of reference. Joyce played with her ring the whole trip, trying to figure out why she could access certain functions, but others were unavailable. For example, she could create constructs, but the AI was definitely off line.

"Fold Complete Admiral. We are currently two light years from Chu'lak, and awaiting orders."

"Thank you captain. Recon the system please, active sensors, active cloaking. I want to know everything about this system within twenty four hours."

"Yes Admiral."

Xander turned to the rest of the group, "Anyone who wants to go lay the smack down on some Goa'uld, please follow me." While everyone may have been expecting Xander to lead them to a shuttle bay for some kind of cloaked insertion, instead he led them to the medical section.

"My doctors have made the request that should you find yourselves with an opportunity to acquire any additional larval Goa'uld, such as from dead Jaffa, we would appreciate their capture. We don't know much about their biology, and need to remedy that. Our database contains several anti-parasite inoculations, and we need to know if any of them will work.

"Teal'c, if you will allow it, the doctors here would like to get a detailed scan of your symbiont. This would allow them to get a bit of a head start on their research, without harming either you or your symbiont."

Teal'c agreed and was scanned rather extensively by several doctors and scientists, while everyone else received inoculations against a wide range of potential pathogens.

Everyone also had sufficient samples taken and brain scans recorded so that should anything unfortunate occur, well, it wouldn't be permanent.

Once everyone was done, Xander lead everyone to a room off one of the cloning bays. It was where clones went to be educated once they were decanted from a cloning chamber. These however had been modified for use by people looking for additional skills, so instead of slots for wheelchairs, these had normal chairs attached to them.

"What we will be learning over the next several hours, is how to operate the majority of our technology. Once completed, there will be several hours of simulator operations to prove to you that you do in fact know how to operate the technology. These stations are somewhat similar to some of the Virtual Reality Technology that SG-1 has encountered off-world. Unlike most of that technology, there are several safeties in place. First, it will automatically eject users if their health becomes threatened. Second, you can mentally order a disconnect. Third, the operations officer can eject you if they detect a problem. Fourth, the machines themselves will eject you if there is any sign of a potential failure of any of the systems. Another point of safety that I should point out is that, while it may be a bit jarring, simply cutting the power to these systems will cause no harm to its occupants. That was a key design feature, once we finished going through your mission reports. Oh, and dying in game, won't hurt you in the real world.

"With all that covered, if nobody has any questions, please grab a seat, and we'll begin." With Xander being the first to sit down, the Sunnydale group quickly followed, and a bit more slowly, the members of SG-1 and Bra'tac followed, finally taking up about one quarter of the available learning machines. "It might feel a little odd at first, but it should quickly become a drowsy feeling, and you should fall asleep rapidly. Once the programs have finished, you should awake feeling like you've had a full night's sleep. After a quick shower and a meal, we'll tackle the simulators that the droids are even now programming for us based upon our curriculum."

As the training cycles kicked in, Daniel finally thought to ask "What will we be learn..." was about as far as he got into his question before he fell asleep and started snoring. Everyone else fell asleep within a few seconds of him.

While asleep in the learning machines, typically used to educate rapid-grown clones from blank slates to fully operational soldiers in a week's time, the twelve people quickly learned, or re-learned in some cases, basic military hand to hand combat, which progressed to Tai Chi Chuan, Judo, and a combat form of Kendo with a little Iaido mixed in. Then came the ranged weapons training, which included all three types of phaser currently aboard ship. Then was the personal body armor designed to stop several powerful plasma blasts, such as that which come from a staff weapon. Then came the really fun items, like the operations of Valkyrie's, Tie Defenders, Destroids, and Garlands (really big motorcycles that transformed into power armor). Next they all received a brief course in military science, why things worked the way they did in the military, as well as a touch of military etiquette and protocol, with focuses on Starfleet and The US Air Force. Finally, everyone got a basic primer on starship operations. Xander figured that Daniel and Teal'c would appreciate the additional perspective.

Sam and Dawn however also received a bit of technical training on their equipment, while Daniel and Cordelia, at her own request, received medical training equivalent to that of a corpsmen. Cordelia had already used the MAU to learn most of the healing magic from the various gaming systems they had available to them, but hadn't thought to add actual medical knowledge, until Xander had asked her if there was anything she wanted extra in this training session. Xander also realized that he did need some formal leadership training, so that was included in his session.

Cordelia had really been a surprise for most of the Scoobies, until she decided to explain it to them. Simply put, she was opposed to being dead. And while that meant she was generally opposed to putting herself at risk, she was even more opposed to the world ending, as that meant she would be dead anyway, or worse. This was why she helped the others out as she did. She in no way wanted to be a front line combatant, as they had way too high a casualty count, but as a support type, like a medic, she could make sure that the others were more capable of keeping her and the rest of the world alive and spinning just a little bit longer. Besides, it was uncivilized to shoot medics. She did also learn enough martial arts and gymnastics to make her look like Laura Croft, but that was just to make her a better cheerleader, any additional threat she was to the Fang Gangs was merely bonus as far as she was willing to admit.

About twelve hours later, people started waking up. As promised, once awake, there were droids to lead everyone to the officer's mess hall, and once caffeinated and fed, were lead to showers. Upon leaving the showers, most didn't realize that they had dressed in combat and survival gear rather than their typical uniforms. First, it started off with Still Suits, patterned off those from Dune. Then came flexible, energy resistant body armor that doubled as a combat uniform and light space suit. Finally came deployable light power armor reminiscent of the recent Lost In Space movie, where everything got lost, including the plot. This last bit even included a light force field. While there was a lot of 'light' in what they were wearing, they were all very well protected from, well, pretty much anything except anti-tank weapons. Each of them could take several staff weapon hits, and maybe even a staff cannon hit or two, before having to withdraw from combat. They certainly couldn't stand up against an Al'kesh or a Ha'tak. All in all, they had a high degree of mobility for the amount of protection they were wearing.

Once everyone was happily fed, Xander lead everyone to the holodecks. "Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the holodecks. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the technology, these rooms simulate real environments so accurately that you will not be able to tell them apart from the real thing. If you can tell the difference or notice an error, please let one of the droids know at once, and the defect will be repaired.

"Next, I would like to point out that everyone here is wearing the standard light combat gear worn by Valkyrie pilots, and is doing so correctly." At this, SG-1 noticed that they weren't wearing their normal uniforms. Many of the Sunnydale residents also realize that they were in uniform, rather than their typical mode of dress, something that shocked and horrified Cordelia. "What we will be doing in the next few hours is essentially playing video games with real life equipment. We will start out with the antiquated Super VF-1S in strike configuration, then move through the VF-2 SS SAP Special Valkyrie II, the VF-11 Thunderbolt, to the VF-19 Excalibur and VF-22 Sturmvogel. We have many of each design on board, with the exception of the Super VF-1S which we now use as a trainer should it become necessary, so you may choose the craft of your choice for later exercises and in combat with the Goa'uld. Each shares a very similar cockpit layout, and all other major features, such as the detaching Garland cockpit, shields, Warp and Impulse drives, phasers, micro-photon torpedoes, ablative armor, beam sabers, and all the rest are of course very similar in each fighter. The Sturmvogel, as a heavy assault fighter is of course, heavier and slower than the light fighters like the Excalibur and the Valkyrie II, but also with comparatively heavier weapons, shields, and armor. The Thunderbolt is pretty much an all-purpose starfighter, which essentially means it excels in no particular area compared to the others, but it also has fewer weaknesses overall. The Valkyrie II is slightly heavier than the Excalibur, but that is compensated for by having a lot more thrust, she has the best sensors of the group and can control multiple attack drones. She's actually a bit more maneuverable due to her smaller physical size, but the Excalibur has the better weapons, armor, and stealth.

"Now then, the first group of simulations will be simple carrier operations, followed by simple one on one combat with an enemy ship. They will be shooting back. Then it'll be two on two combat, then the odds go up from there to one vs. twelve, and finally, we'll do some force on force combat, with capitol ships in the mix as well.

"Pilots, to your planes please." Xander turned and stepped into the nearest holodeck and took the first cockpit pod, as everyone else did likewise.

As soon as a pilot indicated their readiness, the computer initiated their training missions, recording their skills assessments and making recommendations for improvements in the next sim.

Sam did the best out of everyone, as she had been a pilot earlier in her career. Buffy came in next, and those who knew her figured it was likely an effect of being the slayer. The real surprise though was that Cordelia came in third. Teal'c, Jack, Bra'tac, and Xander were next, and Daniel was in the mix with the rest of the Scoobies, average, but not stellar.

"Now that we've played with the toys, does anyone here doubt that the training machines worked?" Xander asked once they had all gathered together again.

Arriving at the bulkhead doors for the hangar deck, Xander again addressed the group. "Ladies and Gentlemen, beyond these doors lies Valkyrie Fighter Squadron Zero Zero, also known as Skull Squadron. You will each have an opportunity to choose one of the available planes, based upon your scores in the simulators. There are plenty of craft available, so don't worry about not getting your first choice. If there's any particular color or scheme you want on your plane, let the droids know, and they'll have it squared away before we launch. Any tweaking you want done, and changes made, again, let the droids know, and they'll do their best to tweak it to your specs. Then we'll go out and test the changes, and by then, we should have the system recon'ed, and know everything we need to know in order to prosecute this attack with the fewest lost craft.

"Until then, I give you, Skull Squadron." Xander motioned at the doors and they parted exactly on his cue.

While the sight in front of them wasn't as impressive as it would have been had they not just spent the better part of five hours flying starfighters very similar to these, it was rather impressive to see them all lined up, ready for their inspection. There were droids running back and forth across the hangar deck performing some seemingly random tasks.

"There are one hundred starfighters in this hangar, all dedicated to the twenty four pilots that will eventually comprise Skull Squadron. These were specially assembled by Lord Vulcan for _our_ use. These are the absolute best starfighters to have come from his assembly lines. Lord Vulcan can produce nearly perfect copies of starfighters, roughly seven hundred forty starfighters every hour, and they would be magnificent examples of machine precision, these he took four times as long to build, with an entire magnitude of precision greater than usual."

As Sam had first choice, she selected one of the Valkyrie II's, requesting it be painted Air Force Blue. Buffy, second from the simulator exercises, selected a Sturmvogel and insisted on painting it bubblegum pink, since Joyce wouldn't let her have a pink car. Cordelia chose an Excalibur and had it painted Ferrari Red. Teal'c, Jack, Bra'tac, and Xander also chose Excalibur, but in Black, OD Green, Brown, and Emerald Green. Daniel, Giles, Jana, and Joyce chose the Sturmvogel, Daniel chose to leave the paint scheme standard, while Giles chose British Racing Green, just as Jana had predicted. Jana had the droids paint hers navy blue, and Joyce chose to have hers done in 'Green Lantern' Green. Dawn and Willow would have both preferred different selections entirely, but reluctantly chose Thunderbolts in green, thinking that at least Xander wouldn't have to have them repainted if he wanted to use them once they got a chance to get back into their own starfighters, namely Dawn's Tie Defenders, which Willow had grown fond of.

Shortly thereafter, the group heard "Fleet Admiral Harris, please contact The Bridge. Fleet Admiral Harris, please contact The Bridge," come over the loud speakers.

A few minutes later, Xander called everyone together, "Okay folks, Recon's in. They are setting up a briefing room now to give us the rundown on what they've found."

_Main Briefing Hall, 20 minutes later_

Once everyone had seated themselves, an analysis droid walked down the throat of a U-shaped table that the Scoobies and SG-1 were seated around. "Fleet Admiral Harris, pursuant to your orders, we have finished reconnaissance of this star system and have confirmed the presence of multiple hostile vessels, installations, and troops, as follows."

A large hologram appeared above the droid of three Ha'tak. "In orbit of the planet Chu'lac, the second in the system from the primary star and the only planet capable of supporting life in the system, there are three Ha'tak class starships. We have confirmed that they are primarily troop transports with a moderate number of plasma batteries, currently powered down. All three vessels have shield emitters, currently powered down. We have confirmed also that they do carry starfighters, but cannot determine the maximum capacity currently. Each Ha'tak appears to be built slightly differently, which will make establishing a baseline for the class a difficult proposition."

The hologram changed to a Ha'tak on the planet's surface. "On the surface of the planet, we have detected a fourth Ha'tak, which is nearly totally dormant, apparently due to extensive battle damage that is currently undergoing repairs. We estimate a combat capacity of roughly thirty percent of the three ships in orbit. Scans indicate that this ship is geared more towards ship to ship combat, than carrying either troops or starfighters, though she does have both those capabilities. It is believed that she carries only twenty starfighters and only a small force of troops, likely equal to a regiment in size."

The hologram changed again to a fortress like complex. "This is believed to be Apophis' base of operations. He is currently in residence. We do not know of his current plans, however a light force guards the Stargate itself. We are unsure as to the meaning of this, as it does not conform to any known Goa'uld patterns. The complex itself currently houses one thousand fifty four Jaffa of a possible three thousand six hundred and a total of 65 starfighters. It is currently defended by a significant array of plasma cannon batteries of various sizes. The largest sizes we believe to be primarily ground-to-orbit anti-ship batteries, and the medium sized ones to be surface-to-air anti-starfighter batteries. There are also choke points covered by smaller plasma cannon turrets, we believe to repel a ground attack by infantry. There are transport rings scattered throughout the area, including one five hundred meters from the Stargate itself."

The hologram changed again to depict five other installations. "These are outlying fortresses, not as heavily defended as the main fortress, but clearly intended to provide additional support to the primary fortress across all ranges of combat. They are currently staffed at seventeen percent maximum capacity."

"We also believe that less than twenty percent of all guns are currently manned. We believe that, should Apophis have sufficient warning, he can bring less than half to combat readiness before all batteries would be destroyed."

Again the hologram shifted to display the Stargate itself. "Finally, the Stargate itself needs to be a primary objective to prevent Apophis from fleeing. It is recommended that once the area is secured, the primary crystal be pulled and delivered to this vessel until all objectives are met."

The hologram changed again, this time to an animation, "Precision Phaser strikes are recommended to eliminate the main plasma batteries while a column of Destroids eliminate both the ground and air defenses from range." The animation displayed the droids words taking place. "Once clear, we recommend deploying battle droids or Garland riders to break enemy morale and to subdue the populace." Again, the hologram showed several thousand battle droids escorted by hundreds of Droideka and several Destroids surrounding and controlling the populous.

Everyone watched the animation run a second time before Xander spoke, "Thank you. Please leave the data. You are dismissed." As soon as the droid was gone, he addressed the rest of the group. "Ok, that's what we are up against. This is how I think it'll play out, and those of you who know the Goa'uld, please feel free to interrupt.

"Teal'c has informed us that the average Ha'tak has a maximum cannon range of eighty five thousand kilometers, but prefers to stay within thirty thousand kilometers where their plasma bolts and gunners start to lose their effectiveness. This is well within our maximum weapons range of three hundred thousand kilometers for Phasers, and half-million kilometers for quantum torpedoes. Our main cannon, a Heavy Quantum Reaction Cannon, has a maximum range of a quarter million kilometers.

"Given what we have learned from Teal'c's staff weapons, the droids in Analysis are predicting that our shields will hold against a sustained bombardment from three ships for approximately forty-five minutes.

"I think we should enter the system under warp, and enter orbit around Chu'lac, coming to rest relative to the three Ha'tak at fifty thousand kilometers. Once there, we hail Apophis, demand that he turn the child over to his father, order his forces to stand down, and that he surrender himself peacefully, to stand trial for his crimes against the people of this galaxy. If a Miracle occurs, and he actually complies, are there sufficient Jaffa leaders to prevent anarchy from setting in?

Bra'tac answered, "In the rare event where a Goa'uld was removed from power, it is usually the Goa'uld's First Prime who takes control, however in a situation such as this one, it would be the Jaffa Council who would make what you would refer to as the civilian decisions, while the First Prime maintains military control, until he aggravates the Jaffa Council too greatly."

"Good. No Anarchy. Nice and peaceful.

"The possibility also exists that he will simply ignore us. In such a case, I suggest we simply beam all the children from the palace, find the snake-head and introduce him to a prison cell. Results should be similar to those in the first, unlikely, possibility.

"The most likely scenario we are faced with is that he will try to fight us. After all, he has numerical superiority as far as he can tell. We have one ship, he has three. He has a planet full of Jaffa, we have whatever we might have on this ship, which, according to his way of thinking, won't be much, if we can take out three Ha'tak, we won't have much in the way of troop capacity.

"So, he will respond with violence, which is exactly what we want him to do. Our sensors will be running the entire time, recording everything. We will learn everything about them that we can, from actual, measured weapons strength, to shield strength, to recharge rates. Right now, we have guesses. Tomorrow, we will have facts.

"If possible, we will disable weapons, shields, and propulsion, and come back for prisoners later.

"Willow has requested that she be allowed to engage the ground forces with magic. Willow and SG-1 will be our opening salvo in the ground campaign. Willow will teleport down to the vicinity of the Stargate, distracting the insertion of SG-1 via transporters. Together, you will secure the Stargate and the DHD, to ensure that Apophis doesn't escape. As stated in the brief, expect light resistance at the Stargate, likely just the single squad, unless you happen upon a shift change. Once that mission is completed, the rest of the scoobies will concentrate on eliminating ground based weapons batteries from orbit via ship based weaponry and then from Valkyrie once we shift to smaller targets. Once the major batteries are cleared out, we send in the droids to secure the populous while SG-1 & the Scoobies secure Rya'c and Apophis. Apophis is preferred to be taken alive, but given his history, do not hesitate to kill him if the situation calls for it.

"Cordelia and the medics will remain aboard ship unless needed. Green Lantern, Giles, and Jana will remain aboard ship as back up should it be needed, and to protect the medics should they be needed.

"Questions, comments, disputes?"

Sam asked, "That's it?"

"That's it. The simpler the plan, the longer it survives in the face of the enemy. Plan every little detail, and your plan won't last 5 seconds, partly because nobody can remember what the plan entailed when they are busy taking fire, and partly because the enemy will make the rest of it invalid. KISS principle applied to combat."

Sam liked the response as did the other career military people in the room.

Jack piped in "Good plan."

Daniel followed up with "I like it." before turning to Jack and saying "It's better than your usual plans."

Jack decided to take umbrage with that comment, "I'll have you know that the reason it sounds better than my usual plans is that I usually don't make plans. Hard for the enemy to screw something up when it doesn't exist."

Daniel turns to Sam and with a very plaintive tone, "That explains SO much of our lives."

Sam tried and failed to keep the smile off her face. Jack was a senior officer after all.

Xander turned back to Willow and asked, "How much time do you need to prepare?"

Willow thought for a moment, "Magically speaking, I'm ready to go now, but I'd like about ten minutes to grab some additional equipment."

Xander nodded. "Unless anyone has any other concerns then, we'll start to head in system immediately." Seeing no further concerns or suggestions, "Alright, I'll inform the Captain, and we will begin moving in system. Everyone, prep for your missions please. SG-1 and Willow, please assemble in the transporter room. Scoobies, please assemble in the Skull Squadron Hanger, ready for the ground assault. I'll be on the bridge being berated by the snake head. Cordelia, Giles, Jana, and G.L., please assemble in the Transporter room as well. Please be heavily armed in case the brown sticky stuff meets the rotary air circulation device."

Teal'c still didn't understand that particular euphemism, sure it would be a time consuming clean up job, but sometimes the human phrases just didn't make sense unless one knew the original usage. Bra'tac clearly didn't understand the reference at all, but wasn't going to bring it up at this particular moment. Other things were more important.

"I will remind everyone, that our top warp speed is warp nine point nine, and we are two light years from our target. That means that we won't be in orbit for almost six hours. Please plan accordingly. Dismissed."

_Apophis' throne room, Chu'lac_

Apophis' First Prime turned from the pedestal he was observing approached the throne and knelt.

"Speak." Apophis commanded.

"My lord, a ship approaches in a most unusual fashion. They are traveling faster than light speed, but are not using hyperspace. I have never seen their method of travel before, and it is not in your lordship's database. Assuming they maintain current course and speed, they will arrive in approximately four hours."

Apophis thought about this a few minutes. They were clearly at a lower technological level as they did not yet have hyperspace travel, instead using whatever this primitive form of travel was. They should be easy to capture, then I will have them interrogated, find their home world, and enslave it. That will help me replenish my resources and provide another source of slaves and future Jaffa.

Eventually, he replied, "You will do nothing to indicate we have seen their approach. Once they arrive you will scan their vessel and gather all data possible before it becomes too damaged. You will allow them to make the first move. Then, we will capture them and extract their knowledge. They will be of use to me in regaining the strength I recently lost."

***(1600H)

Xander transmitted his orders to the captain, then spent the next four hours with his two girlfriends. Armor had been shed, but most of their clothing had stayed on. It was three very contented piles of goo who finally left the lounge that they had made private territory for a lengthy make out session. A shower, meal, and final prep later, saw Xander on the bridge again, and everyone else either in a transporter room or the Skull Squadron hanger bay.

Xander walked over to the captain's chair and addressed the captain, "How far out are we Captain?"

"Five Minutes, Admiral." was the immediate reply.

"Very well, Admiral has the bridge."

"Aye sir, Admiral has the bridge."

"Ship wide." Xander waited a few moments before continuing. "All Hands, this is the Admiral speaking, Red Alert. Stand by to engage enemy vessels. Five minutes to Chu'lac Orbit. SG-1 and Scoobies, stand by for deployment." Xander sat in the Captain's chair and closed the channel. "Helm, take us out of warp on schedule."

"Aye Sir."

Minutes later, the helms officer took them out of warp, precisely on schedule and reported, "We have dropped to sub-light, Admiral, currently at twenty five PSL."

Tactical also reported, "Admiral, three enemy contacts in orbit of the planet, as expected. Passive locks established. Targets are running shields at minimal and weapons down as expected."

Xander looked to communications, "Hail the palace."

"Channel open, they are receiving."

"This is Fleet Admiral Harris of Starfleet Seventh Fleet to the Goa'uld known as System Lord Apophis. You stand accused of multiple crimes against humanity, the most recent of which is kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. As such, you are hereby ordered to stand down all your forces, return the child known as Rya'c to the child's rightful guardians, and surrender yourself to stand trial for your crimes. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of all hostile forces. You have five minutes to comply."

Thirty seconds later, they received a reply, in visual, from Apophis himself. "I am your God, Apophis. You will surrender my new vessel or be destroyed."

Xander signaled for mute, the droid at communications replied "Mute, Admiral."

"Do we have a transporter lock on him?"

Tactical replied, "Yes sir, however, the palace shields are up, and significant enough to prevent transport."

Xander returned to the communications droid, "Put us back on." at the droid's signal, "You are no God. You are a parasite, and one that will soon be removed from the face of the galaxy. Get that delusional creature off my screen."

"Channel closed," the communications droid replied after the screen had gone back to a tactical display.

Tactical called out from its station, "They are scanning us quite heavily."

"Return the favor. Go to active targeting. Lock all three ships. What is our weapons status?" Xander replied.

"Sensors Active, Aye. Locking weapons on targets. Phaser arrays armed and ready, full charge. Pulse Phaser turrets armed and ready, full charge. Ion cannon turrets armed and ready, full charge. Torpedo tubes loaded with Quantum Torpedoes, armed and outer doors open and ready to fire. One hundred twenty four thousand seven hundred seventy four torpedoes remaining in the armory. Point defense rail guns armed and ready, fully charged and fully loaded, reloads standing by. Main gun armed and ready, full charge."

"Status of enemy Weapons?"

"Enemy weapons have just armed, and appear to draw directly from their main reactors. They are launching fighters, count eighty two. They are firing." It took several seconds for the plasma bolts to cross the fifty thousand kilometers. "Registering shield impacts. Damage is minor, and is regenerating. At this volume of fire and at this range, they will not be able to overcome our shield recharge rate."

"Advise Willow and SG-1 that they have a Go for Stargate capture." Xander observed the tactical display for several seconds. "Launch Defender groups Red, Gold, and Blue. Set Ion Cannons to point defense, target enemy fighters should they penetrate starfighter defense."

"Aye, Admiral. Red Group launching. Gold Group and Blue Group moving to launch positions."

"Good. Phaser Arrays, destroy all enemy weapons mounts, then disable their shields and engines. If you get a clear shot at their life support, take it. I want them to understand what Space Dominance really is."

"Aye, Admiral. Firing."

_Transporter room 18_

Willow was watching the console for the message that they had entered orbit & had proceeded to taunt the latest big-bad. Once that was accomplished, she was ready to teleport down to the surface, and had all her gear ready. Her G-M pack was attached to her Battle Bikini under her Mage robes. She of course had on her weapons belt with lightsaber, pulse pistol, and tricorder. Daniel was currently focused on her staff, trying to figure out what language the inscriptions were in. Willow noticed that the message from Xander that she could proceed came in, and she brought up the sensor array on the transporter panel, focusing it on where the Stargate was supposed to be. Using the visual array, she gained enough information to Teleport herself exactly where she wanted to go. "Daniel?"

"Yes Willow?" he replied absent mindedly, while still focused entirely upon the staff.

Very sweetly, and with an amused smile on her face, "I need my staff back now. It's time to kick some Goa'uld ass."

"Hmmm?"

"My Staff? Time to kill bad guys?"

"Oh! Right! Sorry." Daniel handed it over.

As soon as the staff was back in her hand, the headpiece lit up with an inner fire. "Transporter chief, as soon as I leave, wait thirty seconds, then transport SG-1 down to the surface, please use the coordinates provided."

"Aye Commander."

Willow stepped several feet away from any other objects, tapped the staff to the floor, and disappeared.

Sam stared for several seconds, "Ok, now I really want to know how she did that."

The transporter chief responded "Lt. Commander Rosenberg has sufficient knowledge of magic to allow herself to teleport without the aid of mechanical devices."

Sam's automatic response of "There's no such thing as magic" slipped out as she was still trying to figure out what technology Willow had used.

The droid responded "I do apologize for my lack of programming on this subject, however, according to my database, there is indeed Magic, and Lt. Commander Rosenberg and Commander Calderash are the senior magical officers in the fleet." The droid waited a few seconds, "It has now been thirty seconds. Please step onto the transporter pads, and I'll send you to the surface."

Without further argument, they did so, though Sam did resolve to figure out what Willow was doing later.

_Stargate Clearing, Planet Chu'lac, several feet up_

As soon as Willow materialized, she used her gravity manipulation pack to stop herself from falling. She then controlled her decent so that she came to a stop about ten feet up and about fifteen feet from the Jaffa that were guarding the gate. With her staff glowing in her left hand, and floating in midair, she commanded, "Jaffa, kree! Lay down your weapons and surrender yourselves and you will not be harmed. Resistance is futile."

The Jaffa responded by opening fire with their staff weapons. All of the plasma bolts appeared to strike, but apparently did no damage. After several strikes each to apparently no effect, the Jaffa gave up. When they did, Willow simply pulled the staff weapons from their hands and laid them on the ground below her.

Willow cast Dominate from her staff on the lead Jaffa and commanded, "Now, go over there, and sit down. You will cause no difficulty for my friends who will be showing up shortly." She gave him a little push with telekinesis, and the Jaffa, while still confused as to what happened and completely out of their element, did as they were told. After they began moving, SG-1 transported down to appear next to the DHD.  
"Colonel O'Neill, you may tag the devices for transport. These Jaffa will cause us no problems." Jack nodded and headed to do just that.

"How are you flying like that?" Sam asked.

"Gravity Manipulation," was Willows response. "One of the first toys I got from the MAU was a backpack that allows me an interesting amount of control over gravity in my immediate area. Quite a few things can be done with simple gravity manipulation, flight is one of the simplest. And, yes, I am willing to show you the theory later."

"Thank you!" She may have said something about finally running into someone who wasn't stuck up about having advanced technology, but nobody would confirm it if they were asked.

Jack had finished setting the beacons on both the Stargate and the DHD. "All set here, Willow."

Willow tapped her comm-badge, "Rosenberg to Skysaber"

"Skysaber here, go ahead Rosenberg."

"You should have lock on the DHD and Stargate now. Transport when ready." Both devices disappeared in short order.

"We have them. Do you wish to return now?"

"Negative Skysaber, advise the Admiral that we are going hunting. Rosenberg out." Willow tapped the comm-badge again to close the channel.

Teal'c began examining the area around the 'Gate for the set of rings that would be Apophis's escape strategy. Once found, Teal'c pointed them out to the others.  
The group of six began preparing their ambush for when Apophis would make his inevitable escape.

_Bridge, SDF-Skysaber_

"Status?" Xander called to the bridge from the captain's chair.

"Admiral, sixty-five percent of enemy weapons destroyed, all of which are facing us and we are unable to get line of sight on the remaining weapons emplacements. Enemy shields are off-line. All three enemy ships primary and secondary drives off-line. All enemy fighters have been either disabled or destroyed. We have lost two Tie Defenders to ramming attacks. Our shields are at 100%. Phaser capacitors at 85% and recharging. Ion cannon turrets armed and ready, full charge. Torpedo tubes loaded with Quantum Torpedoes, armed and outer doors open and ready to fire. One hundred twenty four thousand seven hundred seventy four torpedoes remaining in the armory. Point defense rail guns armed and ready, fully charged and fully loaded, reloads standing by. Main gun armed and ready, full charge."

"Launch rescue shuttles & retrieve the pilots of the disabled craft. All fighters, return to hangers for recharge. Drop ships and Valkyrie squadrons to launch positions."

The droid at sensors called out in alarm, "Admiral, we have a hyperspace event, bearing zero-three-four by three-one-five, range eighty-five thousand kilometers. Another Ha'tak class vessel has just left hyperspace. We are being targeted. They are firing."

"Excellent! I was afraid I wouldn't get to give this order. Lock sensors on the new target. Give me bore-sight on the target. Main gun to fire as she bears. Time to explain just how out matched they really are."

Ten seconds later, "We have achieved bore-sight on enemy target five. Main gun firing. Target destroyed at two percent. Main gun shutting down for recharge. Main gun will be ready to fire in two minutes."

_Apophis' throne room_

"Kel nok1!" Apophis exclaimed in surprise as the newly arrived Ha'tak was destroyed with but a single shot from the primitive ship. "What treachery is this?"

"It seems impossible my lord, but it was of an energy type I have never seen before. Sensors indicate that the blast would require at least thirty Ha'tak worth of power to generate."

Apophis pondered this for several moments, "Ya'isid ma'gue2." Apophis stood and walked to the ring transporters in his throne room. "Jaffa, re3." Once his five Jaffa were with him, he activated the ring transporter to take him to the Stargate clearing.

Upon arriving at the clearing however, two of his Jaffa were struck down almost immediately by unknown energy weapons, and the other three were eliminated a few seconds later.

Apophis immediately activated his personal shield then shot a pulse of energy from his Kara Kesh4 towards where the energy streams had come from, missing completely. The return fire however did not miss, impacting on his shield causing it to waiver briefly. A few more shots broke it completely, much to Apophis' surprise.

As SG-1 and Bra'tac walked out of the bushes, and Willow dropped her invisibility spell, five with phaser rifles still trained on him, and Willow holding a spell in her hand, just waiting for an excuse to throw it, Apophis stood still, but very clearly upset at his situation. Goa'uld supremacy hadn't been challenged this badly since the Asgard took over for the Great Races Alliance. How in the universe had the pitiful Tau'ri managed this?

Six of the annoying monkey-creatures approached, one of which was flying, another was his former first prime, the Shol'va, and the third was apparently Master Bra'tac, his best trainer! A Shol'va? Then of course came the members of that annoying group of Tau'ri that called themselves SG-1. Of course they were involved, who else would it be? The day just kept getting better and better, he thought sarcastically.

The floating one approached, "By order of Starfleet, I hereby place the Goa'uld known as Apophis under arrest. You will be tried under international law for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and kidnapping. Even if found innocent on all charges, you will be removed from your host and turned over to the other Goa'uld, if any can be found that aren't also wanted on similar charges. To he who hosts Apophis, your nightmare is nearing its end, you shall soon be free."

At that statement, Apophis had to fight his host for control, so powerful was the burst of hope from the slave. He was also unable to keep his eyes from glowing briefly.

"You will pay for your insolence with a thousand deaths!" Apophis snarled as Willow cast a paralysis spell upon him, causing him to fall to the ground, limp.

"Never gonna happen," replied Jack before setting the rifle to stun and putting a shot into Apophis' chest. "Can we get him out of here now?"

"Willow to Skysaber, six to beam up. Energize when ready." After a brief moment, SG-1, Apophis, and Bra'tac left the clearing via transporter, while Willow cast another Teleport spell through her staff. Only the unconscious Jaffa were left in the now peaceful clearing.

AN

1 What is this

2 We must leave

3 Jaffa, come.

4 Kara Kesh is the name for the ribbon-like hand device that almost all Goa'uld use as their primary personal weapon.

/AN

Bridge

"Admiral, Commander Rosenberg, SG-1, and Master Bra'tac have returned to the ship with System Lord Apophis. Commander Rosenberg over-rode the bio-filter hazard protocols on System Lord Apophis and ordered security to secure him in the Brig," one of the droids on the bridge reported.

"Excellent. Communications, open a channel to the planet. Get me as many receivers as possible. Broadcast only please."

"One moment please Admiral." The droid worked steadily for a few moments before speaking again, "Channel open Admiral, you may proceed when ready."

"Planet Chu'lac, I am Admiral Harris of Starfleet. Your current leader, System Lord Apophis, has been taken into custody on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, kidnapping, slavery, and several other very serious matters.

"If I am correct in my understanding of your government, then that means that the Jaffa Council is currently in charge. As such, we ask that they stand down all military forces.

"We will be landing a peace keeping force shortly in order to help maintain law and order while your government is in transition between the Goa'uld lead dictatorship, and a free Jaffa-lead system of your own devising.

"Food and medical supplies will be available to any and all who need them. Anyone firing upon the peacekeeping force will be eliminated. Your weapons technology is insufficient to harm most of our units, so please do not commit suicide by attacking our forces.

"Drop ships and shuttles will be landing shortly to assess your needs. Please cooperate with the medical personnel. They will be trying to ensure your liberation from Goa'uld slavery.

"I would like to open a dialog with the Jaffa Council as soon as possible. Hopefully, some of them are watching this broadcast. If so, please present yourselves publicly to a patrol leader, and they will get you in touch with me.

"We are not here to cause panic, chaos, or disorder. We will try to interfere in your lives as little as possible, until you request otherwise, or you prove incapable of managing your own affairs yourselves.

"That is all for now, Thank you for your time."

"Channel closed Admiral."

"Thank you. Launch Valkyrie squadrons. Be on the lookout for active anti-air batteries. Eliminate any and all hostile forces, but offer any and all combatants to surrender. Hostile units surrendering will be honored as soon as they cease firing."

_Four Hours Later, Admiral's Briefing Room_

Xander looks around the table at the gathered group, both SG-1 and the Scoobies. "Ok, We have Apophis in custody. Rya'c, Drey'auc, and Fro'tak are currently installed in secure quarters, awaiting the cessation of hostilities before we really need to do anything with them. I am willing to give this missions primary objectives a complete, and move on to the secondaries. Any objections?"

Jack spoke up, "Not an objection, but what exactly are the secondary objectives?"

"Well, it seems to me that with great power comes the greater responsibility to use it properly, and deal with the ramifications of that power's use or non-use." Cordelia groaned over Xander quoting one of the most over-used lines in comic-book history.

Giles spoke up in his defense, "Now Cordelia, unlike most comic book enthusiasts, Xander at least demonstrates that he actually understands the underlying message. You should not be so quick to find fault with those trying to exhibit proper leadership attitudes, especially when you are just as quick to find fault with their failures. This attitude and understanding of that line from Spiderman is not a fault, I assure you. It shows that he is taking his responsibilities seriously, and actually thinking about them."

"Mr. Giles, it's not the attitude, it's the geekiness. I guess you can take the dweeb out of Sunnydale, but you can't take the dweeb out of the boy."

Giles was about to rebut the cheerleader, but Xander interrupted, "I appreciate your efforts Giles, but you can't force someone to grow up. Now, I believe I was trying to answer a question." Giles nodded, Cordelia looked as if she was going to object to being called a child, but pretty much everyone was glaring at her to shut the hell up. "As everyone here knows, we are currently securing the planet, making sure that the Goa'uld do not attempt to retake the planet, making sure that the people have enough food, water, and medical supplies while they form their own government and can once again, take care of themselves outside the rule of the Goa'uld. If we had captured Apophis and just left, the planet would quickly be swallowed up by one of the other Goa'uld, especially due to the fact that Chu'lac has such a large population compared to other Jaffa planets. No Naquada mines, but it's a real nice place to raise a family. Good soil, temperate weather, long growing seasons. From a Goa'uld perspective, it's a great place to put your Jaffa slaves so that they will want to make more slaves for you.

"There were several assaults on our ground forces in the first half hour or so, but nothing since then. I believe that they now understand that attacking our mecha and infantry is a fatal decision. Thirty-five Jaffa have been killed in those raids, with seven being taken alive. Another seventeen may be saved by the medical droids, but I haven't seen that report yet, apparently surgery is still ongoing.

"Master Bra'tac has gone down to the planet in order to arrange a meeting with the Jaffa Council. It is his belief that they will take the request for a meeting between us a lot better from him in person, than from my previous transmission. I have asked him to set the meeting up for nine hours from now which is about an hour after sunrise in the Stargate clearing. He believed that would give him enough time to locate all the council members and convince them to attend.

"Other than that, everything is going according to plan." Xander didn't say, but did think to himself that if he had been just a bit more paranoid, he might be tempted to taunt Murphy.

Joyce asked, "Are the operations being performed on planet or aboard ship?"

Cordy butted in as the ranking medical officer present. "Security has not given the all clear for medical personnel on the planet yet, so the operations are being performed aboard ship. I've resurrected six Jaffa so far, and I am exhausted. I should however be able to resurrect the rest of them before the time limit expires. I will have to regenerate a couple of limbs and some burns. Other than that, scarring is the only permanent result, provided that no additional Jaffa decide to attack." Cordelia turned to Buffy, "Please ensure no additional fatalities, I almost have too many for the next two months as it is."

"I can't promise that Cordy. Even heavy stun has very little effect against a Jaffa in full armor and the helmet in place. Without the helmet, only a head shot has effect, and they do not stay stunned long due to the symbiont's healing abilities." Buffy replied.

Dawn had been thinking for a few moments and finally struck on a thought, "Teal'c, didn't your initial armaments debrief contain a Jaffa stun device?"

"Indeed there are two such weapons, the Zat'nik'tel, which you have two examples of, and the Tok'kal, a spherical device approximately eight inches in diameter. The Tok'kal is used much like the Tau'ri flash-bang, except that it does induce loss of consciousness in all subjects within twenty five meters of the device. The pulse is stopped however by walls, bulkheads, and doors."

Buffy heard this and perked up immediately. "Are there any stockpiles of these Zit Nickles or Tokers that we can raid?"

Teal'c and Giles winced. Daniel tried to swallow a chuckle at the tokers, but everyone else desperately tried to ignore the mispronunciation that was bad enough that even Jack had to stop and wonder. Teal'c looked at Jack who just shrugged in reply. "If there are any armories, they would likely be in the palace and the outer defense stations. Jaffa resistance forces would know of those locations and would have raided them by now."

Buffy slumped back down at not getting to play with the new toys.

"Any other questions?"

Jana decided to ask an important one, "When do we leave?" Xander and the rest of the Sunnydale group just kinda looked at her as though they hadn't actually thought that far ahead. That was mainly because they hadn't. Jack just gave this tiny little smirk that just screamed 'gotcha' and the rest of SG-1 looked at the Scoobies expectantly.

"Um, that's a good question."

Author's Technical Notes:

Distance between Earth and Chulak: 40,000 LY, (20 minutes by Asgard Hyperdrive) instant journey by Fold Drive, or 7 years, 75 days at warp 9.975. By Goa'uld Hyperdrive (equivalent warp 80) 28d 12:50:37.5.

Combined forces total SG Kit: (for joint operations only)

VFX of choice depending on personal preference (X model incorporates a modified Garland Robotic Power Armor as the cockpit/escape module and also hold limited emergency gear)

Pilot gear:

S5 security blaster sidearm

Type IIIc Pulse Phaser Rifle attached to pilot's gravity-couch

Lightsaber (only if trained in the Jedi Arts)

Pilot tactical life support body armor

Standard Tricorder

Comm-badge

Emergency survival gear: Federation first aid kit w/ 2 capsules, emergency shelter (capsule 1), portable fusion reactor/long range subspace transceiver/emergency replicator (capsule 2)

Tricorders:

Standard: Basic, multi-purpose sensor tool. Your basic, mass-produced tricorder that includes all the standard functions at the standard ranges. Did I mention basic?

Enhanced: Upgraded multi-purpose sensor tool, almost as good as a specialized unit, but lack the advanced specialized sensors.

Specialized - Medical: specialized sensor tool, capable of all the basic functions of a standard unit, but include specialized sensors, databases and programming for medical use.

Specialized - Engineering: specialized sensor tool, capable of all the basic functions of a standard unit, but include specialized sensors, databases and programming for engineering use.

Specialized - Science: specialized sensor tool, capable of all the basic functions of a standard unit, but include specialized sensors, databases and programming for scientific use. This unit is designed to be modular & highly programmable, allowing a science officer to reconfigure the tricorder to their experimental needs.

"Anyone identified as possessing knowledge of the construction of advanced devices or knowledge of advanced sciences is hereby drafted into military service by Executive Order 1374" Signed President Franklyn D. Roosevelt, 8 December 1941.

_Omake - Xander's Tactical Briefing _

"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Red Squadron, currently comprised of VFX-19 and VFX-21 Starfighter Systems. I say Systems because everything from the pilot's tactical life support body armor and flight helmet to the rest of the craft work together to provide the best performance known in this galaxy. For those of you who don't know what they are, VF stands for Variable Fighter, and there are VBs as well, which predictably stands for Variable Bomber.

"The Pilot's tactical life support body armor can stop multiple rounds from all known projectile based small arms as well as Jaffa Staff weapons. They are also highly resistant to Zat'nik'tel pulses. The suit incorporates a waldo harness that is required to operate the Valkyries in their humanoid form. Of course, the suit also incorporates a G-Suit and full life support for operations in the vacuum of deep space.

"The pilot's flight helmet includes sensors that pick up brain waves allowing the pilot to control some of the more exotic aspects of the craft in ways that a conventional control system are simply incapable of duplicating. It also incorporates a heads up display that shows the pilot what's going on outside the cockpit, even in places that he wouldn't normally be able to see, like directly below. You'll notice that the helmet is open-faced. In the event of a significant drop or rise in pressure, the helmet will automatically seal to protect the pilot. It can also be closed manually should the pilot wish to do so.

"Attached to the pilot's body armor is an S5 Security Blaster, which if you've seen the recent Star Wars movie, may be familiar to you, standard tricorder, com-badge, first aid kit, and two Capsule Corp Capsules. The Capsules contain an Emergency Shelter and a portable fusion reactor with a built in long range subspace transceiver and emergency replicator. The selection provided by the replicator is rather limited, but it can be personalized should you choose to do so. The emergency shelter is designed to survive a direct hit by an EF6 Tornado or a Class 5 Typhoon. The shelter itself is also air tight, air-lock-able and with the assistance of the fusion reactor can recharge the life support of the pilots tactical life support body armor. The shelters are capable of networking together for greater capacity and capabilities. The fusion reactor runs on hydrogen, but can fuse heavier elements at less efficiency, and both the reactor itself and the replicator's multi-purpose goo can be replenished by the addition of common environmental materials, plants, rocks, just about anything, and it's a good idea to recycle all your dishes and cutlery as well as it will stretch the time between re-fueling.

"Once inside the body armor, the pilot straps themselves into the cockpit module which can detach from the main body of the starfighter to function as an ejection capsule if the starfighter is severely damaged, or when the pilot needs powered armor but can't maneuver the Valkyrie in tighter spaces. The cockpit itself has two additional modes besides the ability to function as the Valkyrie's cockpit. In mode two, it is a hovercycle, capable of speeds up to one hundred fifty miles per hour. In mode three, it is a three and a half meter tall robot with multiple weapons available including an appropriately sized beam-saber and phaser emitters. When separated, the sensor suite is quite limited, and little better than is found in the enhanced tricorder. Attached to the pilot's gravity couch is a Type IIIc phaser rifle.

"When connected to the main body of the Valkyrie, there are no known starfighters that can out maneuver them. With their impulse drives, they can put out more Delta-V than any other design currently known about by a very healthy margin, propelling them to a maximum velocity of 85 psl. With their warp drives, they can also travel at up to warp 6 to either enter or exit a combat zone very rapidly, or patrol a star system, or whatever they need to do. For faster speeds or longer journeys, they rely on a mother ship or an attachable Fold Booster.

"The differences between the 19 and the 21 are small, and it's mostly a personal preference. The 19 is faster and slightly more maneuverable. She carries a couple of extra photon torpedoes as well. The 21 has a built in cloaking device to augment the very impressive passive stealth capabilities of the 19 and 21. Valkyrie tradition dictates that the pilot chooses the plane's colors and which FAST packs are attached on each given mission. There are packs for extra speed, heavy weapons, heavy armor, and a sensor booster. Of course, for some mission types, ones that require stealth, the 21 is the obvious choice, while others will obviously require the 19's speed and maneuverability.

"This is the same gear that your own personnel use when on missions with Starfleet, with modifications for desired livery, paint and camouflage options."


End file.
